RECAP: Giants Hold Off 3rd Period Surge from Rockets; Win 6-4

Category: ArticleJanuary 11, 2025

Langley, B.C. – The Vancouver Giants picked up their 20th win of the season on Saturday night by defeating the Kelowna Rockets 6-4 at the Langley Events Centre.

The win improves Vancouver’s record this season to 20-16-5, while the Rockets fall to 15-19-2-1. Vancouver is now 6-3-1 since the holiday break.

The Giants led for almost the entire game, but had to thwart off a late attack from Kelowna that saw them get to within a goal more then once. The G-Men outshot Kelowna in the contest 34-20.

Ty Halaburda led the way offensively for Vancouver with two goals (14th and 15th), while London Hoilett netted the game-winning-goal with 9:28 remaining in the third period. Tyler Thorpe (16th) and Colton Roberts (3rd) also scored, and Connor Levis sealed the deal with an empty-net goal, his 16th of the season. Giants goaltender Brady Smith got his first win in a Giants uniform with 16 saves.

Kelowna got goals from Jakub Stancl, Hiroki Gojsic, Kalder Varga and Michael Cicek.

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GAME SUMMARY

The Giants got on the board very early in this one, when Halaburda drove the net and had a puck go off him and in just 1:03 into the contest.

Ty Halaburda sets the tone for the Giants, per usual!@TheWHL pic.twitter.com/jj8cSnZCCv

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) January 12, 2025

Several minutes later, he would add a power play marker, by shovelling in a rebound for his 15th goal of the season.

AND MAKE THAT TWO FOR BURD! 🤩

Ty Halaburda with his 15th of the season!@TheWHL pic.twitter.com/KYsEttXyDD

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) January 12, 2025

After 20 minutes, Vancouver led 2-0 on the scoreboard and 10-4 in shots on goal.

Midway through the second, Thorpe extended the Giants lead to 3-0 with a goal seconds after a power play expired, when he fired one from the right dot through goaltender Jake Pilon.

All in a days work for Tyler Thorpe@WHLGiants | @CanadiensMTL | #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/JxPCE1Ji3L

— The WHL (@TheWHL) January 12, 2025

Stancl got the Rockets on the board for the first time late in the second when he one-timed a shot from the right circle on a power play that just snuck through Smith.

After 40 minutes, the Giants had a 3-1 lead and had held Kelowna to just 11 shots on goal.

Roberts extended Vancouver’s lead to 4-1 with another goal right after a power play ended, when Schmidt hit him with a cross-ice fed for his third of the season.

Colton Roberts with his 3rd of the season, restoring the lead to 4-1 Giants.@TheWHL | @SanJoseSharks | #SJSharks pic.twitter.com/HtDht8G5uE

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) January 12, 2025

The Rockets wouldn’t make things easy on the G-Men.

Hiroki Gojsic and Varga would score goals 1:06 apart to make it a one-goal game with 10:12 still remaining in the third.

Just 44 seconds later, however, the Giants got a massive goal from Hoilett, who sniped one to the top corner off a rush that was started by 16-year-old Tyus Sparks.

LONDON HOILETT MAKES IT A 2 GOAL GAME!!!!!!✌️@TheWHL pic.twitter.com/XGl6Bb7MLu

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) January 12, 2025

Cicek scored for Kelowna with just 2:20 remaining to put the Giants on their heels for a second, but not for long, as Levis would hit the empty net to seal the deal at 6-4.

THEY SAID IT

“Obviously there’s a couple games we’ve had [where] it cost us at the end, but we stuck with it. The kids today – they were really dialled in. I thought we played a really good hockey game tonight. We made some mistakes at the end – fatigue mistakes I call them. At the end of the game, maybe a little bit tired. Sometimes you just don’t have the energy, or the oxygen in you and you don’t think properly and you make a couple mistakes, errors. There have been some goofy goals scored against us the last games here. Just proud of the way our kids responded.” – Giants Head Coach Manny Viveiros on the game overall

“When I look at this whole picture of this span that we went through, our game has been pretty good. And that’s the most positive. That’s one of the things that we’ve talked about too…the mistakes we were making have been effort based. I have no problem with that. They’re working hard, they’re trying to do the right things and then mistakes happen. It happens on both sides with teams that you’re playing against and at inopportune times it’s happening to us and it cost us a couple games. But tonight our kids were determined.” – Giants Head Coach Manny Viveiros

FULL INTERVIEW WITH COACH MANNY BELOW

“I saw [Sparks] going down the wing and I knew the d-man was going to play him a little bit harder, so I found a little soft spot in the middle and [Sparksy] made a great play and got it to me and I just wanted to change the angle a bit, so I dragged it and shot. Honestly I didn’t know it went in, but everyone started screaming, so I kind of got the hint there.” – Giants Forward London Hoilett on his GWG

STATISTICS

SOG: VAN —10/10/14 = 34 | KEL – 4/7/9 = 20
PP: VAN—1/5 | KEL — 1/3
Face-Offs: VAN — 44 | KEL — 22

3 STARS

1st: VAN – Ty Halaburda – 2G, 8 SOG, +2
2nd: VAN – London Hoilett – GWG, 3 SOG, +1
3rd: KEL – Hiroki Gojsic – 1G, 1A, 3 SOG, +1

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Vancouver: WIN – Brady Smith (16 saves / 20 shots)
Kelowna: LOSS – Jake Pilon (27 saves / 32 shots)

THIS AND THAT

Halaburda’s two goals give him 11 points in his last 9 games (6G-5A)
With two assists, Calgary Flames draft pick Jaden Lipinski increased his point streak to 10 games (4G-12A)
With an assist, captain Mazden Leslie increased his point streak to 5 games (2G-8A). He also has 15 points in his last 9 games (2G-13A) and has already equalled his point total from last season (44) in 28 fewer games
With two assists, draft-eligible forward Cameron Schmidt increased his point streak to 5 games (3G-5A)
With two assists, 16-year-old defenceman Ryan Lin now has 9 points in his last 8 games (2G-7A) and has 30 points on the season (3G-27A)

UPCOMING

Date	Opponent	Time	Location
Friday, January 17	Tri-City	7:00 PM PST	Langley Events Centre
Sunday, January 19	Brandon	2:00 PM PST	Langley Events Centre
Tuesday, January 21	Seattle	7:05 PM PST	Accesso Showare Center