RECAP: Giants Edged 5-3 by Cougars, Still Clinch Playoff Spot

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GAME SUMMARY

Only one goal was scored in the opening 20 minutes, which came at the 7:50 mark of the opening period on a 5-on-3 Cougars power play, as Parascak put it home from the slot after some quick passing to make it 1-0.

Midway through the second, Giants goaltender Brett Mirwald made some marvellous stops on a penalty kill to keep the deficit at just 1-0.

Unfortunately for the Giants, right after they killed it off, Prince George doubled their lead after Parascak fed a pass across to Funk, who became just the second WHL player in the last six seasons to reach the 60-goal plateau (after Connor Bedard last season).

Just 1:16 later, Funk scored his 61st of the year on a backdoor one-timer on the power play to make it 3-0 Prince George.

Before the period was done, Lipinski got the Giants on the board on an odd-man rush, ripping it home while skating down the left wing.

Jaden Lipinski gets the Giants on the board!

3-1 them | 18:35 2nd#GiantNewEra | #Flames | @NHLFlames pic.twitter.com/ZHakjDS2qf

— X – Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) March 9, 2024

After two periods, the Giants trailed 3-1.

The Cougars went up 4-1 just before the five-minute mark of the third period after Riley Heidt went cross-crease off the rush to Parascak, who scored his second of the night and 36th of the season.

With the Giants down 4-1 in the third, Schmidt went to work.

First, he made it a 4-2 game with under seven minutes left after he out-muscled Villiam Kmec for a loose puck that was banked off the boards and sitting inside the Cougars zone. After lifting Kmec’s stick and staying on his feet, Schmidt took the puck from the left circle and cut his way to the net, where he stuffed it past the out-stretched pad of Joshua Ravensbergen to make the score 4-2.

Schmdity’s got that dawg in him 🩻🐶

Cameron Schmidt’s 25th goal of the season matches Gilbert Brule (2003-04) for most goals by a 16 year old rookie in Vancouver Giants history!#GiantNewEra pic.twitter.com/GlOuMutmOH

— X – Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) March 9, 2024

With 2:40 left in the game, Schmidt came through with yet another highlight reel goal, this time holding the zone by preventing a clearing attempt, and then dancing his way through traffic and eventually into the right circle, where he ripped a shot that hit the back bar and came out within the blink of an eye. The referees had to check with the video crew to ensure the puck had indeed gone in, and after a quick chat, they deemed it had gone in, making the score 4-3.

Schmidty with his second of the game! 🤯

Make that 26th goal of the season for Cameron Schmidt, surpassing most goals by a 16 year old rookie in Vancouver Giants history!#GiantNewEra pic.twitter.com/ASc64Hau0i

— X – Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) March 9, 2024

Despite Schmidt’s late-game heroics, Cougars captain Hudson Thornton responded just 32 seconds later to make it 5-3 with 2:08 left in the game, which held up as the final score.

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THEY SAID IT

“We liked our start. We talked about giving PG easy offence and I think when we checked well and we were on top of them, we were going to create some offence of our own. I thought tonight it was just little details at the end of the day [like] discipline – we take retaliatory penalties against a team that has one of the top [power plays] in the league and it just came down to a fine line between winning and losing. If we want to play with these top teams, we need to be committed for 60 minutes and making sure we’re making team-first decisions…” – Associate Coach Adam Maglio on the game overall

“Schmidt kind of took a hold of things there, he was electric in that last five minutes. We know our group is going to fight until the end and we’ve shown that, especially in the last two months. It was a little too late at the end of the day. We give up that 5-on-5 [goal]. I thought [if we had a] chance to get [Mirwald] back out, we might have had a chance to tie things back up.” – Associate Coach Adam Maglio on not giving up

“His game has been unbelievable, especially the past couple weeks. He drives lines a lot of nights. We’re proud of him. I think he’s realized he’s got to take care of the puck on both sides and I think that’s one thing he’s been much, much better at and his game just keeps growing.” – Associate Coach Adam Maglio on Schmidt

CLICK BELOW FOR THE FULL POST-GAME INTERVIEW WITH ASSOCIATE COACH ADAM MAGLIO AS HEARD ON SPORTSNET 650