RECAP: Giants Fend Off Rebels to Win 4-3

Category: ArticleNovember 8, 2023

PHOTO BY: ROB WILTON

Langley, B.C. – The Vancouver Giants won their second consecutive game on Wednesday night, getting goals from four different players in a 4-3 regulation win over the Red Deer Rebels.

The victory improves Vancouver’s record to 7-8-1 this season.

Of note on Wednesday was a string of three straight goals for the Giants in a span of 4:41 in the second period to give the team a 3-1 lead, but it was Jaden Lipinski’s power play goal that stood up as the game-winner at the 7:25 mark of the third period.

In addition to Lipinski, scoring for the Giants was Tyler Thorpe (9th), Ty Halaburda (5th) and Colton Langkow (3rd). Goaltender Brett Mirwald finished with 32 saves for his sixth win of the season.

Scoring for Red Deer was Frantisek Formanek, Samuel Drancak and Talon Brigley.

Vancouver is now 5-3 in their last eight games.

CLICK FOR THE OFFICIAL WHL BOXSCORE

GAME SUMMARY:

No goals were scored by either side in the opening 20, but not for a lack of trying, as both goaltenders were tested fairly often. Brett Mirwald shut the door on all nine shots he faced, while Rhett Stoesser made seven stops.

The goose egg wasn’t broken until the 13:47 mark of the second period, when Rebels captain Kai Uchacz found Formanek in the slot to make it 1-0 for the visitors.

Just five seconds after opening the scoring, the Rebels found themselves down a man after a boarding penalty and Vancouver made them pay, after Halaburda found Thorpe in the right circle off the rush, who sniped home his ninth tally of the season to even the score.

Vancouver followed up Thorpe’s goal with back-to-back strikes in 30 seconds.

First, Halaburda tucked home a wrap around for his fifth of the season.

Then, Gronick was able to centre the puck to Langkow, who one-timed it past Stoesser to give Vancouver a 3-1 score.

Early in the third period, Drancak made it a one-goal game again when he whacked home a bouncing puck for his fourth goal of the season.

Several minutes later, the Giants made the Rebels pay for another offensive zone penalty when Lipinski won the face-off to himself and chipped the puck top corner over the glove restore the Giants two-goal advantage.

Although Red Deer would get one back off the stick of Brigley, the Giants were able to hold on for a 4-3 regulation win.

THEY SAID IT

“I liked the way our guys are responding. We’re not getting in those deep lulls for a couple shifts after when we give up a goal now and that’s really important. We’ve just got to get back to our game again and get going and you may get a little bit of a push back [but] play the game the right way and we got rewarded for it tonight.” – Head Coach Manny Viveiros

“With an aggressive team like Red Deer, their ‘D’ are very aggressive along the walls and that was part of our pre-scout. We said if we can get pucks behind their defencemen when they’re pinching down, and we have guys in the right positions, we’re gonna get into odd man situations. In the first period we weren’t doing that and in the second period we started doing that and we ended up getting quite a few odd-man situations.” Head Coach Manny Viveiros

STATISTICS

SOG: VAN — 7/14/8 = 29 | RD – 9/11/15 = 35
PP: VAN — 2/6 | RD — 1/4
Face-Offs: VAN — 32 | RD — 34

3 STARS

1st: VAN – Jaden Lipinski – 1G, 1A, 6 SOG
2nd: RD – Talon Brigley – 1G, 1A, 4 SOG
3rd: VAN – Ty Halaburda – 1G, 1A, 6 SOG

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Vancouver: Win – Brett Mirwald (32 saves / 35 shots)
Red Deer: Loss – Rhett Stoesser (25 saves / 29 shots)

NOTEWORTHY:

The Giants are now 5-3 in their last eight games, after starting the season 2-5-1
Jaden Lipinski has seven points in his last five games (3G-4A)
Ty Halaburda has a three-game point streak (2G-2A) and eight points in his last nine games (5G-3A)
Brett Mirwald is 4-2 in his last six starts with a .921 SV%
The Giants power play scored multiple goals for just the second time this season (also did so Nov. 3 at WEN)

NEXT GAME:

On Friday, the Giants host the Portland Winterhawks at 7 p.m at the LEC. For tickets, CLICK HERE.

On Saturday, they’ll head to Everett to battle the Silvertips for the first time this season.