Giants 5 @ Tri-Cities 1 Nov.24th

[Beaner]

Well, managed to listen to most of the game tonight and it sounded like a very good effort from the Giants tonight. From the radio play by play didn't really sound like the Americans really generated that much against the Giants, and it sounded like the Giants just out-worked the Americans tonight.

NOTES
Price and Sexsmith got the starts
Flatters, Wright and Cunningham were the Giants scratches
Shots 27-16 Giants
PP's Giants 2/9, Americans 1/8

GOALS
1. VAN Kraus, (8) (Lamb, Mikkelson), 6:36 Kraus, converts the 2-1 off the Lamb pass.
1. VAN Lucic, (8) (Franson, Blum), 18:04 (PP)5-4, missed this goal.
2. VAN Lucic, (9) , 3:09 Lucic comes out of the box and gets the feed for the clear cut break-away.
2. VAN Lucic, (10) (Bliznak, Repik), 11:05 (PP) 5-4, Lucic gets the feed from Repik from behind the net and he beats Price.
3. TRI Yellow Horn, (14) (Aldred, Felde), 0:34 (PP) 5-4, Yellowhorn on the open side gets the puck and pots it in.
3. VAN Lamb, (10) (Mikkelson), 5:37 Off the Mikkelson Shot/pass, Lamb redirects it past Price.

FISTICUFFS
NONE

OFFICIATING
Theissen tonight, I'll leave the review to those that watched.

OVERALL
Good game after losing in the shoot-out the other night, and Milan with the big game netting his first hat trick, and surpassing his goal total for last year.

Hopefully we get some Tri fans online tonight to talk about the game they saw live tonight.

Strange, I rarely heard Hunts name tonight and he got the third star. Amazing that Bill and Joey hardly mentioned him if he had that kind of a game.

SPECIAL
During the third period tonight, Bill and Joey were getting "massages" from the Americans Mascot. I hope you bought the mascot dinner after the game Joey. haha

3 STARS
1. VAN - 27 Milan Lucic
2. VAN - 13 Kyle Lamb
3. VAN - 24 Garet Hunt

[rinkrat]

Strange, I rarely heard Hunts name tonight and he got the third star. Amazing that Bill and Joey hardly mentioned him if he had that kind of a game.

I saw him lay out a Tri-cities defenseman in open ice during the third! applause

Tri announcers were impressed with his tenacity too.

[Hunt24]

Hunt was good tonight, he's so much more responsible now and gets better week in and out.

I picked Schmidt as a star tonight, that kid was everywhere for a Tri-City team that looked, at best, average. How Schmidt made it through the game without somebody grabbing him and going all Gino Odjick on him is beyond me - especially after he nailed Watt at center ice.

[Carebear]

YAY YAY YAY!! for the team, and great job Sexsmith!

I knew they'd win tonight!

[dondo]

I too listened on the radio .. and it did sound like a dominant performance. I only remember hearing Garet's name a couple of times but apparently he turned a few heads in Kennewick.

I would have picked Mikkelson for the third star as it sounded like he was all over the ice and made some very good plays.

here's my take


Giants Burn Americans
Vancouver 5 Tri-City 1

The G-Men were eager to bounce back from a poor loss in Spokane on Wednesday night, and re-establish their dominance over the US division. Tri-City had won a hard fought game versus Calgary the night before at home and were on a four game home winning streak. Don Hay lambasted his forwards for lack of effort in Spokane and had his players watch the Tri-City/Hitmen game with a bit of homework to follow. Hay wanted to give his guys the chance to watch some of their competitors play from a spectators point of view and it looked liked the Giants players were paying close attention as they brought a hard nosed close-checking game tonight at the Toyota Centre in Kennewick Washington.

Timmy Kraus opened the scoring just over six minutes in assisted by Kyle Lamb and Brendan Mikkelson, who both had two point nights. The Giants came out flying and were out-shooting the Ams and frustrating the home team with their oppressive play. Late in the first the Giants went up by two as the curtain was raised on the Milan Lucic show, demonstrating a true scorers touch notching his first hat-trick in the WHL and making it a natural in the process. On the PP, Johnny Blum fed the puck down the boards to Cody Franson who threw it at the net and found Lucic waiting at the top of crease. The G-Men out shot the Americans 10-3 in the first and dominated the play.

Just after spending two in the box for an interference penalty, Milan Lucic decided to make up for the gaffe by scoring a highlight reel goal. Lucic gathered the puck in his own and stormed down the ice. As he beared down on the Carey Price between the pipes he made a beautiful deke and lifted it past the ‘tender for his second of the night and second in a row, putting his team up by three. Lucic would round out the natural hat about eight minutes later as he tallied his third of the night and second PP goal. Mario Bliznak playing with Michal Repik and Milan Lucic on the first PP unit, got the puck behind the net to Michal Repik. Repik spun and flicked the puck out into the slot and Lucic snapped home a beauty on the doorstep. The Giants were up by four and completely dominating the home team in their own building. Tyson Sexsmith was solid if not terribly busy but he had to be sharp late in the second when Repik was tagged for a too many men penalty. With seconds left in the middle frame the Americans were keeping the puck in the Giants zone and working it around. As the time ticked down the home squad found some open ice and snapped the puck on Sexsmith who had to be quick with his glove to snatch it from getting to the twine, stopping the Americans from gaining momentum going into the break.

The Americans would not be denied in the third though and would ruin Tyson’s shutout bid with some excellent work around the Giants net. Still on the PP carried over from the second the Tri-City squad just 34 seconds into the final stanza. Erik Felde threw the puck on net and Sexsmith had to make a solid quick pad stop. Tyson had to be quick to turn away one more shot before Alex Aldred gathered the loose biscuit and flicked it across to Ams sniper Colton Yellow Horn, who made no mistake tallying his fourteenth goal of the season. The Giants team then calmly shut down the Americans and salted away the game just 5 minutes later when some great forechecking by JD watt popped the puck loose to Brendan Mikkelson at the point. Mikkelson snapped what looked like a wide far-side shot when Kyle Lamb swooped in out of nowhere to tap the puck past Price to regain the G-Men’s four goal lead. Watt wouldn’t get the assist but it was his work which got the puck to Mikkelson. The Giants then shut down the Ams for the rest of the period frustrating the home squad to take a few penalties and further diminish their chances of a come-back.

The Giants played text-book hockey and brought their physical game to the fore while demonstrating, as radio colour guy Bill Wilms put it, excellent gap control. Tyson Sexsmith was good when he had to be and probably would have had the shut out except for a minor defensive breakdown on the edge of the crease. Sexsmith is now the number one goalie for the Vancouver squad, since Dustin Slade’s sudden departure which remains couched in a bit of a mystery as a definitive answer for the desertion is still to be determined. Garet Hunt would get third star honours for being, well Garet Hunt and all that that entails. Odd for a bona fide pest like Hunt to get the nod in an opposing arena – he really must have turned some heads there.

The Giants out shot the Ams 27-16 and went 2 for 9 on the PP, while holding their opponent to 1 for 6. The Giants head down to Portland tomorrow night for a tilt against the Winterhawks. The last time the two met this season was when the G-Men pounded the Portland team 9-0 in the Giants home season opener, where doomed goalie Dustin Butler was left in for all nine goals. Butler has since been dealt to the Blazers and has resurrected their season and his career with the move. The puck drops at 7:30 PST in Portland.

Three Stars
1 – Milan Lucic
2 – Kyle Lamb
3 – Garet Hunt

[HAF]

The Giants flat out worked us all night long. Andy Theissen was piss poor once again but I cannot use that as an excuse as we would have taken a beating no matter who was calling the game. Lucic was a man playing amongst boys tonight and that was obvious. Goaltending,defence and scoring...... I couldnt find a weak link on the ice as far as Giants jersies went. You guys are 100% sound in all aspects of the game. I could see the frustration level build for the Am's as each minute ticked by and therefore..... we took stupid penalties. The first period seemed a little lop sided on the calls though. A hell of a lot of no calls for the Giants and in the second it was obvious that Theissen gave us some pretty obvious make up calls to even things out. Like I said before though, that really had little effect on the outcome of the game as we looked out matched from the opening face off. Your guys' forechecking is phenominal and I've never seen a team that could clear a zone as quickly as the Giants did tonight. Hats off, the better team won tonight. I just hope we still have some gas left in the tank for a tough Everett team tomarrow night on the road as I could tell the boys were running out steam in the third.

[playon]

Dondo good recap of the game, but Watt wasn't on the ice when Lamb scored.

[dondo]

^ he wasn't eh?

hmm must've been the shift before that one -- sorry playon -- thanks for the heads-up -- sometimes I rearrange things according to the way my brain remembers them :skeptical -- , and if there's no stats to back them up I just go with it.

I do know that I felt that was the point at which the ice tilted back for good after the goal scored by the Ams. Didn't hear much out of Watt most of the game, but that shift stood out for me -- so I put the two together.