RECAP: Chiefs Bring A-Game in Win Over Giants

Category: ArticleNovember 23, 2024

Langley, B.C. – The Vancouver Giants lost 5-1 to the Spokane Chiefs on Saturday night at the Langley Events Centre.

The Giants’ record falls to 9-8-4 this season, while the Chiefs improve to 15-9.

Ethan Mittelsteadt had the lone goal for Vancouver, his first goal as a Giant and third of the season.

Spokane got goals from five different players: Shea Van Olm, Mathis Preston, Rasmus Ekström, Berkly Catton and Sam Oremba.

The Giants are now winless in their last six games (0-4-2).

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GAME SUMMARY

The Chiefs got on the board first, scoring on a power play 2:29 into the game after Van Olm forced the puck past the outstretched pad of Hood while sitting on the doorstep.

Vancouver found the equalizer 2:31 later, when Mittelsteadt held the puck into the zone from the left point and smacked the puck on goal, where it beat Carter Esler on the blocker side.

Mittsy's a G-Men!! <3 https://t.co/rNmH6nAMsC pic.twitter.com/VOKD2xnB9j

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) November 24, 2024

At the 16:37 mark of the first period, Spokane would go back ahead by one after Preston found the bouncing puck at the side of the goal and made no mistake for his eighth of the season.

The second period was controlled by the visitors.

Spokane outshot the Giants 20-10 and found the back of the net twice more, once at the beginning of the period and once at the end.

A 5-on-3 power play goal from Ekstrom on a snap shot from the top of the right circle made it 3-1 2:19 into the second period. Then a Catton one-timer from the high slot pushed the score to 4-1 with 4:09 remaining in the second.

Sam Oremba would add a third period goal for the Chiefs to give them a 5-1 lead.

Although the Giants outshot Spokane 15-7 in the third period, very few of their chances were high quality.

STATISTICS

SOG: VAN — 6/10/15 = 31 | SPO – 11/20/7 = 38
PP: VAN—0/4 | SPO — 2/3
Face-Offs: VAN — 32 | KEL — 29

THEY SAID IT

“We’re not a very good team right now. We’re certainly struggling. It seems like whatever we do right now, it takes a lot more effort than it should in a lot of ways. We’re not seeing the plays. We’re not making the plays. We got outworked tonight. We really did. I go back to last night: our group competed last night real hard. Even after that second period, we came out and I thought we had a pretty hard third period, but tonight we were just flat all the way through tonight. It’s a low point of our season right now; this is the lowest. There’s only one way to go from here, but we’ve got to make sure that we certainly understand to get out of these situations, what it takes.” – Giants Head Coaah Manny Viveiros

3 STARS

1st: SPO – Berkly Catton– 1G, 2A, 4 SOG
2nd: SPO – Mathis Preston – 1G, 4 SOG
3rd: SPO – Rasmus Ekström – 1G, 2A, 4 SOG

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Vancouver: LOSS – Burke Hood (33 saves / 38 shots)
Spokane: WIN – Carter Esler (30 saves / 31 shots)

UP NEXT

Date	Opponent	Time	Location
Sunday, November 24	Prince George Cougars	4:00 PM PT	Langley Events Centre
Friday, November 29	Everett Silvertips	7:00 PM PT	Langley Events Centre
Sunday, December 1	Seattle Thunderbirds	4:00 PM PT	Langley Events Centre

B.C. Division