I missed the heavy checking the game the Giants brought when they were playing in Vancouver. I still love the work ethic. Segal was better, but still not great. He did make some tough stops though and was challenging the shooter well. Secondary scoring was good for the Giants with Breitkreuz getting two goals, his first playoff goals in the WHL. The Giants never let the Blazers get that insurance marker dragging themselves back even, within minutes of being scored upon. I would love to get a game where the refs aren't trying to make themselves the story of the game, though. The Blazers played a better game and were bringing more to the ice. Lots of empty seats in Blazer-town though. Not sure why, hopefully they weren't watching Luongo crap the bed for the Canucks tonight as this was hard fought game and worth watching.

Giants Reel In Blazers
Rnd 1 Gm 3: Vancouver 5 Kamloops 4 OT

Don Robinson

For the third game in a row, the officiating was seriously suspect. Poor calls made all over the ice with some almost directly affecting the outcome of the game. Putting the whistles away in the third when things got clutchy was pretty poor form as well. The home team, which has not won a playoff game in 18 tries now, opened the scoring on the PP. The visitors responded with a PP marker of their own. Kamloops went ahead in the second for about 3 minutes when the Giants tied it up again. Kamloops pulled ahead one more time on the PP, before the Giants clawed it back SH as they had been tagged with a soft back-to-back penalty. Kamloops used another PP chance in the third to get the lead, but they were reeled in quickly. The game went to OT and the Giants brought some big pressure, failing a couple of times to capitalise before getting a tip-in at the top of the blue-ice for the win.

Austin Madaisky opened the scoring off of the rush on the PP, shifting Nolan Toigo’s jock strap in the slot and putting home a goal I thought Mark Segal should have had. Lance Bouma got that one back on a PP, going hard to the net and finishing off his own rebound. Brendan Gallagher and Kevin Connauton garnered assists on the play. Jake Trask found the twine in the second, putting his team back up by one. Less than 3 minutes later Brett Breitkreuz scored his first ever WHL playoff goal, driving hard to the net and muscling the puck under Kurtis Mucha who has been mostly solid this series, despite his numbers, but needs to control his rebounds better as they are killing him. Milan Kytnar and some great puck handling by Connor Redmond lead to the goal. The Giants should have had the go-ahead goal a few minutes later, but it was waived off by a crap call. The puck was in the net before contact occurred. Bouma was pushed into Mucha by a Kamloops defender and in my estimation the call was not only wrong, but seemed to be a reaction to what had happened in the game between The Rebels and Blades, when their goalie was run late in a blow-out game. Bronson Maschmeyer got one to go off of a defenders skate on the PP and then Nolan Toigo got that back SH less than 30 seconds later. James Henry and Kytnar with the helpers.

For the first time in this series the teams were tied going into the third. The Giants had not been bringing the heavy hitting game they had brought in Vancouver and it gave the Blazers some open ice to work with. The Blazers got yet another PP chance in the third and it was cashed in by CJ Stretch who could not have had a more open cage as the puck squirted to the open side with all of the Giants focus on the opposite side of the net. It was almost laughable. Once again it took less than 3 minutes to tie the game. Gallagher buried the rebound as the whole top line went to the net. Craig Cunningham worked hard to get the puck to Bouma who drove hard on Mucha. The teams would go to OT for the second time in three games and the result would be the same. The Giants had 4 shots on goal in the extra frame and they all looked like good chances. The best was a beauty cross-ice feed to Bouma who failed to find the five-hole, popping it off the pad instead. Brett Breitkreuz scored his second of the game at the top of the crease, tipping Henry’s point shot past Mucha. James Wright found the puck along the boards working it back to Henry who had gone back to cover the point for a pinching D-man. The goal came at 2:28 of the extra session and gives the Giants a commanding 3 game lead in the series.

The Giants out shot the Blazers 39-31. The Blazers had their PP clicking going 3 for 8, while Giants managed 1 for 5. The G’s got some secondary scoring and drove hard to the net whenever they had the chance. I would have loved to see them harder on the body on their fore-check and back-check, but you could not deny their work ethic in this one. Mark Segal was okay in this one with some very solid stops down low and challenging the shooter well but had some positional difficulties, which cost him goals. After posting a .915 SV% in the regular season he was an awful .842 SV% coming into this one and needs to praise the offensive output of his team to get him wins he might not have got with a lesser skilled/determined squad. The Blazers are a young team with only one 19 year old and three OAs and their conditioning could also be a factor as this series continues. The Giants can close out the series and get the sweep with a win in Kamloops on Wednesday. The puck drops at 7pm PST.

Three Stars

1. Brett Breitkreuz
2. Austin Madaisky
3. James Wright