RECAP: G-Men Grab Resounding Win Over Blazers; Hop Rockets for 5th Place

Category: ArticleMarch 16, 2024

PHOTO BY: ALLEN DOUGLAS

Kamloops, B.C. – Three different Vancouver Giants had multi-goal games on Saturday night in an emphatic 9-2 win over the Kamloops Blazers at the Sandman Centre.

The win – coupled with a Kelowna Rockets loss to Everett – means the Giants have hopped Kelowna for fifth place in the Western Conference standings.

Defenceman Logen Hammett led the way offensively with a career-high five points on two goals (7th, 8th) and three assists, while Cameron Schmidt notched his second hat-trick of the season, giving him 29 goals on the year. Connor Levis also had two goals (23rd, 24th), while Sam Honzek (10th) and Tomis Marinkovic (4th) provided the other Giants tallies.

Brett Mirwald didn’t have a busy night for his standards, but still finished with 30 saves on 32 shots for his 29th win of the season.

The Giants carry an overall record of 32-29-4-0 (68 points), which places them two points behind the fourth-place Wenatchee Wild (70 points), although the Wild have a game in hand. The Giants have three games left on the schedule and finish the season with a home-and-home against the Rockets on March 22 and 23.

The Blazers tallies on Saturday came from Emmitt Finnie and Jordan Keller.

CLICK FOR THE OFFICIAL WHL BOXSCORE

GAME SUMMARY

Vancouver struck twice in the first 61 seconds of the game, first when Schmidt put home a rebound at the 14-second mark, and then when Honzek deposited a rebound off a point shot from Hammett. It was the quickest two goals they’ve had to start a game this season.

Schmidty quick with it! 14 seconds in!!! 😨

Cameron Schmidt gets the Giants on the board!#GiantNewEra pic.twitter.com/m7T2ZSFeSH

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

Honzo with the rebound! 🤓
Giants are up 2-0 only 1:01 into the opening frame 😏#GiantNewEra | #Flames | @NHLFlames pic.twitter.com/ZH1vroxfdh

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

Although the Blazers cut the Giants lead in half midway through the period thanks to a power play goal from Finnie, Vancouver would respond with three consecutive goals before the period was done.

First, Levis snuck his way into the slot and put home a pass from Zimmer to make it 3-1.

LEVYYYYYYY extends the G-Men lead to 3-1 with his 23rd of the season and 13th as a G-Men 🤗#GiantNewEra | #GoJetsGo | @NHLJets pic.twitter.com/0ik9esLVmu

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

Then, under three minutes later, Hammett moved in from the point and sniped his first of the game blocker side past Sanche, after a great cross-ice feed from rookie Aaron Obobaifo.

what. a. pass. from Obo and Hammer just LAUNCHES it to the back of the net for his 7th of the szn🚀#GiantNewEra pic.twitter.com/AILH44NpaE

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

Finally, with just 13 seconds left in the period, Schmidt put on the jets, chopping the puck out of the defensive zone and then flying towards it, beating the Blazers to it despite having to cover more ground, where he then finished on the backhand to make it 5-1 Giants after just one period of play.

Holy. Jets. Cameron Schmidt.

Kid's got 28 tallies and you know more are on their way.#GiantNewEra pic.twitter.com/cW3pBqlRyz

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

Vancouver added a pair of goals in the second to take a 7-1 lead after 40 minutes.

Levis tallied his second of the game and 24th of the season on a rebound as he was falling down to the ice to make it 6-1.

Eyes on the prize! 🤑🤑
Levy with his second of the night!#GiantNewEra | #GoJetsGo | @NHLJets pic.twitter.com/hX34Hd7YGb

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

Then, Hammett threw one on goal from the left circle to give him his first career multi-goal game.

Logen Hammett. 2 goals, 4 points & counting… for the night 👀🦁

Is this also a good time to remind you that we still got half of second and third left? ☺️#GiantNewEra pic.twitter.com/DatVvvCMLE

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

Early in the third, Schmidt completed the hat-trick on a rocket of a wrist shot from the left circle.

Schmidty with his 29th of the season, which means a second-career hatty for Cameron Schmidty!!!!!! 🎩🎩🎩

8-1 VAN | 5:11 3rd#GiantNewEra pic.twitter.com/f7ARrnWP0b

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

Marinkovic added another goal on a power play to make it 9-1 at the 12:58 mark of the third period, before Keller made it a 9-2 final with a goal for Kamloops off the rush with 5:06 remaining in the game.

PP goal: Rinko edition.

From Adam Titlbach to Tomis Marinkovic, the Giants leads the Blazers 9-1!#GiantNewEra pic.twitter.com/IqANpxg6yZ

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

THEY SAID IT

“I thought our details were there early on. I think we’ve got off to some sluggish starts here because of puck management. I just thought early on, we were crisp and the start set us up for success tonight…”I thought the lines were in sync tonight. They were playing well with each other and a lot of the goals were kind of right around the net, too right? So that’s an area we need to be better at, is winning those net-front battles, but also some great plays. Zimmer’s play to Levis, Schmidty on the breakaway, there was a lot of good stuff. But I just felt like everyone was in sync tonight and we were really connected.” – Associate Coach Adam Maglio on the game overall

“As far as standings, it could come down to that last game in Kelowna and that will be our last road game, so I think tonight, showing that we can come into an opposing building, we can start on time, everyone has their legs, everyone is on the same page, it’s important to build that momentum because like I said we might be in a really important game next Saturday night in Kelowna.” – Associate Coach Adam Maglio on winning on the road for the first time since Feb. 14

“I think Hammett [has] been a stablizer and we’ve talked about that. He plays hard, but he’s disciplined within his game, so he doesn’t get caught running around. He’s positionally sound. He knows how to check without taking penalties. He plays the game the right way and he plays the game hard, but he’s always kind of had a little bit of that offensive potential that we saw tonight. He’s got a sneaky good shot – he showed that a couple times tonight – and he’s a headsy d-man, so his eyes are up all the time and he made a couple good plays in the o-zone to set up goals tonight.” – Associate Coach Adam Maglio on Logen Hammett

CLICK BELOW FOR THE FULL POST-GAME INTERVIEW WITH ASSOCIATE COACH ADAM MAGLIO

STATISTICS

SOG: VAN — 15/12/10 = 37 | KAM – 8/7/17 = 32
PP: VAN—1/3 | KAM — 1/4
Face-Offs: VAN — 37 | KAM — 39

NOTEWORTHY

The Giants five first-period goals represents a new season-high for goals in a period
The Giants nine goals are a new season high for goals in a game
13 different Giants had at least one point on Saturday, while seven had multi-point outings
Hammett’s five points torched his previous career single-game high of two. Saturday was also his first career two-goal game and his 20 points on the season are also a new career-high, after recording 18 in 2021-22
At 29 goals, Schmidt is now one away from becoming just the sixth WHL player in the last 30 years to score 30 or more goals as a 16-year-old rookie (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 18 points in his last nine games (10G-8A)
Brett Mirwald is now 15-3-2 in his last 20 games with a .930 SV%. His 29 wins are T-2nd in the WHL and his .914 SV% ranks 4th
Colton Roberts had a +5 rating on Saturday, the highest single-game plus-minus rating for any Giants player this season

3 STARS

1st: VAN – Logen Hammett – 2G, 3A, 5 SOG, +3
2nd: VAN – Cameron Schmidt – 3G, 6 SOG, +3
3rd: VAN – Connor Levis – 2G, 1A, 3 SOG, +4

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Vancouver: WIN – Brett Mirwald (30 saves / 32 shots)
Kamloops: Loss – Jesse Sanche (10 saves / 15 shots) AND Logan Edmonstone (18 saves / 22 shots)