RECAP: Giants Drop Tight Affair to Cougars 4-2

Category: ArticleJanuary 7, 2025

Prince George, B.C. – The Vancouver Giants fell 4-2 to the Prince George Cougars on Tuesday night on the road in the first of two straight at CN Centre.

The loss drops Vancouver’s record this season to 19-15-4, while the B.C. Division leading Cougars improve to 23-10-3-2.

Tuesday’s game was a back-and-forth affair, with the game tied 1-1 entering the third period. Ultimately, two Cougars goals 2:05 apart early in the third was the difference in the hockey game.

Cameron Schmidt (29th) and Mazden Leslie (8th) scored the two goals for the G-Men. Burke Hood delivered another solid performance in goal for the Giants with 25 saves

Riley Heidt (19th), Borya Valis (20th), Jett Lajoie (11th) and Viliam Kmec (7th, ENG) scored for Prince George.

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GAME SUMMARY

Heidt had the only goal in the opening 20, when he sniped one high from the left circle to open the scoring just under nine minutes in.

This broke Giants goaltender Burke Hood’s shutout streak at 158:35, nearly eight periods.

Vancouver had a very strong start to their second period and eventually found the equalizer off the stick of Schmidt at the 13:14 mark, thanks to a laser of a shot off the rush.

Schmidty with a BULLET!! 🔥

Cameron Schmidt ties it for the Giants, his 29th of the season.@TheWHL | #NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/kQ3qIUP5KL

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) January 8, 2025

Hood made some marvellous saves at the tail end of the second period on a Cougars power play to keep the game knotted 1-1 after 40 minutes.

And the rookie goaltender Burke Hood stays HOT! 🔥@TheWHL | #NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/dgm0jfcxLv

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) January 8, 2025

Early in the third, Valis gave the Cougars the lead when he potted home a rebound just after Prince George’s power play expired.

On the same play that he scored on, he was high sticked, giving the home side yet another power play opportunity. Once again, right after the power play expired, Prince George found the back of the net, with Lajoie poking home a puck between Hood’s pads to make it 3-1.

Leslie shovelled home some loose change on the power play with 5:50 remaining after Schmidt was initially stopped point blank by Ravensbergen to make it a 3-2 hockey game.

We are within one, thanks to the G-Men Captain Mazden Leslie with a PP goal!@TheWHL pic.twitter.com/4DRW2KnaYN

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) January 8, 2025

With the goaltender pulled for the extra attacker, the Giants got one good look, but once again Ravensbergen pad shut the door.

Kmec would score from his own zone into the empty net with less than 18 seconds remaining to make the final score 4-2.

THEY SAID IT

“We liked our game overall tonight. Just a couple situational goals where we’re coming out of the box and just some reads to sort out, but other than that I liked our 5-on-5 play. I thought the guys competed hard. I thought we got better: our second was really, really good. I thought maybe the first you could tell we didn’t really have our legs and then we got going in the second. Liked our game overall. ” – Giants Associate Coach Adam Maglio on the game overall

“Our team is at it’s best when we’re skating, [when] we’re using our legs like [in] that [second]. And then just bearing down around the net. We had a lot of really good looks, so it’s just bearing down and finding one. Ravensbergen is a really good goalie, so you’ve got to make sure you’re making his life hard, making sure you’re shooting for maybe some more second opportunities because he’s a good first-shot save goalie, so I think we can do a little better job of creating some chaos around the net.” – Giants Associate Coach Adam Maglio on a strong second period

STATISTICS

SOG: VAN —6/10/12 = 28 | PG – 13/7/10 = 30
PP: VAN—1/2 | PG — 0/3
Face-Offs: VAN — 25 | PG — 30

3 STARS

1st: PG – Riley Heidt – 1G, 2A, 2 SOG, +3
2nd: VAN – Cameron Schmidt – 1G, 1A, 4 SOG
3rd: PG – Joshua Ravensbergen – 26 Saves on 28 Shots

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Vancouver: LOSS – Burke Hood (25 saves / 28 shots)
Prince George: WIN – Joshua Ravensbergen (26 saves / 28 shots)

UPCOMING

Date	Opponent	Time	Location
Wednesday, January 8	Prince George	7:00 PM PST	CN Centre
Friday, January 10	Kamloops	7:00 PM PST	Sandman Centre
Saturday, January 11	Kelowna	7:00 PM PST	Langley Events Centre