Vancouver Giants 1 Seattle Thunderbirds 2 (OT)

[Hunt24]

Giants amazing winning streak ends on unlucky bounce
Vancouver now 10-0-1

On a night when the Vancouver Giants were outworked, the Seattle Thunderbirds got a lucky bounce in overtime to end the Vancouver Giants season starting winning streak at 10 games with a 2-1 win Saturday night in Seattle.

The Giants (10-0-1) opened the scoring when Jason Reese scored a highlight reel worthy goal late in the second period. It was the eighth of the season for the former first round bantam pick.

Dustin Slade pitched a shutout for 59 minutes making a number of big saves to preserve the 1-0 lead including a 5-on-3 powerplay in the second period. Slade (5-0-1, ) would make 27 saves in the loss.

With the clock working against them and already on the powerplay, Seattle (2-3-0-3) pulled their goalie for a 6-on-4 advantage and captain Aaron Gagnon got the equalizer in the game’s dying seconds.

Vancouver was given a powerplay early in the overtime frame when the game, and the winning streak, ended. While killing the penalty Seattle’s Chris Durand dumped the puck into the Giants zone from center. Dustin Slade, in an attempt to catch the puck, moved behind the net only to watch the puck bounce oddly off the sideboards and trickle into the Giants goal. For Durand it was his first point of the season.

Derek Yeomans (2-2-0-2) made 23 saves for Seattle for the win.

Fight Card

No fights

Our Three Stars

1. Dustin Slade. It’s the first time in a long time that Dustin Slade is on the losing end of a WHL game, but tonight’s loss is not his fault. With the Giants not playing their best road game Slade showed the maturity of a 20-year old and made a number of big saves throughout the night and was easily the team’s best penalty killer. For 59 minutes Slade was on his way to another shutout only to lose the game on a play he’s probably made thousands of times.
2. James Wright. Coach Don Hay put the rookie center between Lucic and Repik to start the second period after Wright dominated the first period. Still looking for his first point of the season Wright was easily the best Giant skater and generated a number of good scoring chances.
3. Derek Yeomans. Playing in net for a team that can’t score is never a lot of fun, but tonight Yeomans made sure his team had a chance to get it to overtime. If the T-Birds do find a way to get their scoring going Yeomans could make Seattle a good, not great, but good, team.

[dondo]

what a seriously crappy way to lose a game. I listened to bits and pieces of the game as well as that bit and it almost made me cry. Slade stood on his head for the game and should have stolen one for his team, but a bad bounce off the boards and lost face-off with time winding down were the Giants downfalls.

27 seconds left in the game and they get a deflected goal over Slade, and then a heart-breaker of finish to ruin their winning streak.

It sounded like the Giants had the momentum all through the third, but couldn't get that insurance marker. They allowed the Seattle team to outshoot them, which I believe is the first time this season they have been out-shot.

A 10 game winning streak to start the season in the WHL apparently ties a record. Well maybe it'll get them to press the play a bit harder next time. Getting a point but not a win might be a blessing in disguise for a team that was getting a bit complacent at times. Maybe this'll smarten them up and remind them to play the full sixty.

[N.W. Bruin]

what a seriously crappy way to lose a game. I listened to bits and pieces of the game as well as that bit and it almost made me cry. Slade stood on his head for the game and should have stolen one for his team, but a bad bounce off the boards and lost face-off with time winding down were the Giants downfalls.

27 seconds left in the game and they get a deflected goal over Slade, and then a heart-breaker of finish to ruin their winning streak.

It sounded like the Giants had the momentum all through the third, but couldn't get that insurance marker. They allowed the Seattle team to outshoot them, which I believe is the first time this season they have been out-shot.

A 10 game winning streak to start the season in the WHL apparently ties a record. Well maybe it'll get them to press the play a bit harder next time. Getting a point but not a win might be a blessing in disguise for a team that was getting a bit complacent at times. Maybe this'll smarten them up and remind them to play the full sixty.


I listened to the whole game. Too often there were two on ones for Seattle. Giants didn't bring their "A" game or anything close to it except for Wright and Slade. Yes the 10 game winning streak does tie a record for the start of the season and they were only five games off the twenty seven games winning streak that the same Brandon team had. Catch though is there was no overtime or shootouts back than. So Brandon won all ten games in regulation time. They went 58 wins, 5 losses and 9 ties for the best all-time record.

[Beaner]

Thanks for the recaps gang, missed the game as I had to work tonight.