RECAP: Cougars Pull Away in Third to Grab Win Over Giants

Category: ArticleMarch 17, 2024

PHOTO BY: ROB WILTON

Langley, B.C. – The Vancouver Giants lost a hard fought battle to the Prince George Cougars on Sunday afternoon, heading into the third period tied 3-3, before the first-place Cougars pulled away to win by a final score of 6-3.

Despite the loss, the Giants remain in fifth place in the Western Conference standings, currently one point up on the Kelowna Rockets. The Giants and Rockets will close out their respective seasons with a home-and-home against one another next weekend.

The line of Jaden Lipinski, Ty Halaburda and Cameron Schmidt continued their strong play on Sunday. The trio provided all the offence, with Lipinski scoring twice (including once shorthanded), Schmidt burying his 30th of the season and Halaburda registering three assists.

Matthew Hutchison stopped 29 of 34 shots in the Giants net.

Vancouver now carries an overall record of 32-30-4-0 (68 points), which places them two points behind the fourth-place Wenatchee Wild (70 points), although the Wild have a game in hand.

The Cougars got a standout performance on Sunday from forward Zac Funk, who scored his league-leading 66th and 67th goals of the season and added an assist, giving him a WHL-best 119 points on the year. Also scoring twice for Prince George was Terik Parascak, which including one into the empty net, plus Carlin Dezainde and Jett Lajoie.

CLICK FOR THE OFFICIAL WHL BOXSCORE

GAME SUMMARY

Prince George opened the scoring after Dezainde finished off the 2-on-1 after a great saucer pass from Parascak 3:56 into the first period,

Vancouver evened the score at the 11:56 mark of the opening frame, after Schmidt poked home a loose puck in the crease, after Joshua Ravensbergen made a lunging pad save on Halaburda.

The moment we've all been waiting for.
This 16-year-old kid named Cameron Schmidt has 3️⃣0️⃣th of the season!!#GiantNewEra https://t.co/w9UjGxa37L pic.twitter.com/EyVf0Yklq3

— X – Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) March 17, 2024

In the final minute of the first period, Lipinski potted home a rebound after Halaburda fired a low shot to the net on an odd-man rush, giving Vancouver a 2-1 edge.

RAHHH

Jaden Lipinski buries the rebound to give the Giants 2-1 lead!#GiantNewEra | #Flames | @NHLFlames pic.twitter.com/rqozO63lc5

— X – Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) March 17, 2024

The Giants couldn’t go into the intermission with a lead, however, as the Cougars responded with a goal on a 2-on-1 just 32 seconds later, after Heidt’s cross ice-pass to Parascak went in off his skate.

Vancouver re-took the lead just past the halfway point of the second after a shorthanded connection between Halaburda and Lipinski, where the latter finished for his second of the night and 23rd of the season, making the score 3-2.

A shorty and Lipper's second of the game!
Ty Halaburda to Jaden Lipinski 🔥🔥#GiantNewEra | #Flames | @NHLFlames pic.twitter.com/kxqViebPaU

— X – Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) March 18, 2024

The Cougars responded on the same power play, after Funk ripped home a one-timer from the bumper spot to tie the game again after 40 minutes of play.

Funk notched his second of the game and 67th of the season just 1:14 into the third period, after pulling the puck from the left circle to the slot on his backhand and finishing top shelf.

At the 8:08 mark of the third, the Cougars would add to their lead with another goal off the rush, after Lajoie finished off a slick pass from Funk.

Parascak added an empty net goal with 22 seconds left to make it a 6-3 final score.

THEY SAID IT

“I thought we played – for the better part of this game – really, really good. I was very happy the way we played in stretches where we stuck to the game plan exactly what we needed to do against Prince George. And then all of a sudden the discipline part, it wasn’t the penalty part – it was freebies. Four [Prince George] goals were on odd-man rushes. I don’t know what our D were doing tonight – I think maybe they were taking Bobby Orr pills before the game because they were up ice on the wrong side of the puck. You want your defencemen up the ice, we encourage it too, but if there’s a turnover you’ve got to make sure you’re back in position too. Not just our defence, but a couple other mistakes that we made too. That’s the difference in a playoff type of game…what happens in a playoff type of game if you make those type of mistakes, you’re going to lose that game, you’re going to be down a game. That’s something we’ve got to understand as a group here. I’m very happy with the weekend, we got two out of three. We played really good for the most part tonight against a real good hockey team, but still we’re not satisfied with moral victories at this time. We know where we are as a group. I love the way our group is, but we’ve got more. Sometimes it’s not skillset more, or work ethic – we’ve got that – it’s being able to think the game in tough situations too.” – Head Coach Manny Viveiros on the game overall

CLICK BELOW FOR THE FULL POST-GAME INTERVIEW WITH HEAD COACH MANNY VIVEIROS

STATISTICS

SOG: VAN — 16/4/8 = 28 | PG – 11/15/9 = 35
PP: VAN—0/0 | PG — 1/3
Face-Offs: VAN — 32 | PG — 29

NOTEWORTHY

The line of Lipinski, Schmidt and Halaburda combined for seven points on Sunday
With his three-point performance, Lipinski now has 19 points in his last 12 games (8G-11A)
With his three-assist performance, Halaburda now has 15 points in his last 10 games (4G-11A)
With his 30th goal on Sunday, Schmidt become just the seventh WHL player in the last 30 years to score 30 or more goals as a 16-year-old rookie (Gavin McKenna – 31 goals in 2023-24, Connor Bedard – 51 goals in 2021-22, Brayden Yager – 34 goals in 2021-22, Patrick Marleau – 32 goals in 1995-96, Nolan Patrick – 30 goals in 2014-15 and Brett Connolly – 30 goals in 2008-09). Schmidt has 20 points in his last 11 games (10G-8A)

3 STARS

1st: PG – Zac Funk – 2G, 1A, 7 SOG, +1
2nd: VAN – Jaden Lipinski – 2G, 1A, 3 SOG, +1
3rd: VAN – Ty Halaburda – 3A, 3 SOG, +2

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Vancouver: Loss – Matthew Hutchison (29 saves / 34 shots)
Prince George: WIN – Joshua Ravensbergen (25 saves / 28 shots)

NEXT GAME:

The Giants close out their regular season next weekend with a home-and-home against the Kelowna Rockets. They’ll play at home on Friday, March 22 and on the road on Saturday, March 23. CLICK FOR TICKETS