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GAME SUMMARY

Wenatchee scored the game’s opening goal just 2:15 in, although Moore’s net drive needed video review before ultimately determining the puck had crossed the goal line, making it 1-0 for the visitors.

The Wild doubled their lead midway through the frame, after defenceman Jonas Woo used his speed to take the puck wide on the right wing and create a 2-on-1, where he ultimately get the puck to the front for Friesen, who put it home at the side of the goal.

Vancouver responded with two goals before the intermission.

First, Gronick and Logen Hammett started the breakout in their own zone by getting the puck to Levis, who poked it past a pinching defenceman to create a 2-on-1 with Schmidt. Levis decided to shoot, making no mistake from the right circle over the glove of Gee.

Levyyyyyy!#GiantNewEra | #GoJetsGo | @NHLJets https://t.co/vHHschktqV pic.twitter.com/Wl0FzKdZEW

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) February 11, 2024

The line of Levis, Schmidt and Gronick would connect minutes later to the tie the game 2-2 after Levis found Gronick at the back door for a tap-in off the rush.

another day at the office for gronny! 😉#GiantNewEra pic.twitter.com/PtPNRZxFg6

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) February 11, 2024

Halaburda would score the only goal of the second period to give Vancouver a 3-2 lead at the 11:19 mark of the period, after he was the first player to a loose puck just inside the offensive blue line, using his speed to create a semi-breakaway where he finished on the backhand.

GET. UP. VANCOUVER.#GiantNewEra | @LangleyEvents https://t.co/bKRj2chQ4u pic.twitter.com/3U69CevnpX

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) February 11, 2024

The Giants exploded for four goals in the third period.

First, Schmidt backhanded a lob pass from his own zone over both Wild defenders to spring Levis on a breakaway, where he went top shelf on the backhand to make it 4-2.

Since tomorrow is the big game, Cameron Schmidt and Connor Levis are practicing the 'Hail Mary.' 🏈@WHLGiants | @NHLJets pic.twitter.com/H9no8qRtBs

— The WHL (@TheWHL) February 11, 2024

Edwards would increase Vancouver’s lead to 5-2 just 43 seconds later, after a great drop feed from Tomis Marinkovic in the slot.

With under five minutes to go, Lipinski and Gronick would each find the back of the net as well, making it a 7-2 final score.

CLICK BELOW FOR THE FULL HIGHLIGHTS

THEY SAID IT

“We did get off to a slow start tonight. We were hoping to catch them after longer travel than we had last night and our game plan was to get on them right away and put them under pressure, but they weren’t having anything to do with that. They actually flipped the script on us and came after us pretty hard and we caught ourselves in that first period standing still a little bit too much and they were coming after us hard and we had a hard time handling a bit of their speed. But we made some adjustments in the second period to offset that. I thought once we got our feet going again and simplified our, I thought we were much better.” – Head Coach Manny Viveiros on the team’s start, going down 2-0

“The way they competed and stuck with it, I was very happy with that. This weekend was a really good weekend here. One thing I liked is – that’s a positive for for us – is we’ve still got room to improve. That’s the best thing. If we can dial it in a bit more, we can get better and better here. That’s the exciting part of it with this young group.” – Head Coach Manny Viveiros on if it was an ‘A’ game

“95 per cent comes from the players. They know, at this stage of the season, they know how we need to play and what we need to do to correct some things. A lot of times we don’t have to say anything at all. We just reinforce it or support and then maybe sometimes reset our group to focus in the right direction, but for the most part it’s all on the kids. They’re the ones that do all that. I agree with you, over this last stretch, over this last month since Christmas here, our group has really come together, they’ve really bonded, and a lot of our leaders are doing a lot of coaching for us in those situations.” – Head Coach Manny Viveiros on the players leading the way

CLICK BELOW FOR THE POST-GAME INTERVIEW WITH HC MANNY VIVEIROS AS HEARD ON SPORTSNET 650