RECAP: Giants Thump Wild 6-2

Category: ArticleOctober 1, 2023

PHOTO BY: ROB WILTON

Langley, B.C. – The Vancouver Giants rebounded from Friday’s loss in a big way on Sunday afternoon, defeating the visiting Wenatchee Wild 6-2 at the Langley Events Centre.

Both Kyren Gronick and Tyler Thorpe had multi-goal games, while rookies Cameron Schmidt and Adam Titlbach each found the back of the net as well.

Goaltender Brett Mirwald picked up his second win of the season thanks to 28 saves.

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GAME SUMMARY:

The Wild got on the board first, after defenceman Jonas Woo came down the right wing and fired a shot past the blocker of Mirwald 7:44 into the first period.

But less than five minutes later, Leslie backhanded a puck towards the net from the left faceoff dot that was redirected in by Gronick to tie the game.

Before the period was done, Damian Palmieri made a smart pinch from the right point, which allowed Lipinski and Titlbach to create a give and go that ended up in the back of the net off Titlbach’s stick.

Just 49 seconds into the second period, the Giants doubled their lead after Lipinski created a perfect rebound for Schmidt off the rush.

With only 1.3 seconds remaining in the middle period, the Wild got one back, off the stick of defenceman Graham Sward, who went over the glove from the slot to get the Giants lead to 3-2.

However, in the third period, the Giants re-took control of the game.

Gronick notched his second of the afternoon just over eight minutes in to make the score 4-2.

Then, just 36 seconds later, Thorpe blocked a clearing attempt at the offensive blue line and whipped a shot upstairs to make the score 5-2.

Thorpe scored again from a bad angle – his fourth of the season already – with 2:08 remaining to make the final 6-2.

THEY SAID IT:

“Our team was a lot more connected throughout the ice. We made some mistakes, but we were in the right positions to recover them. We had some layers to our game tonight, which was really important. Good response by our group today for sure…We got pucks to the net tonight and we got players going. We scored a lot of our goals, I think the majority of them right around that net area. That was something we talked about after Friday’s game. We wanted to get people towards the net and put pucks towards the net there. So pretty happy with the way the guys were willing to get to that area tonight ” – Head Coach Manny Viveiros post-game

STATISTICS

SOG: VAN — 11/11/14 = 36 | WEN – 7/15/8 = 30
PP: VAN — 0/2 | WEN — 0/5
Face-Offs: VAN — 29 | WEN — 34

3 STARS

1st: VAN – Kyren Gronick – 2G, 2 SOG, +2
2nd: VAN – Jaden Lipinski – 2A, 4 SOG, +2
3rd: WEN – Jonas Woo – 1G, 5 SOG

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Vancouver: Win – Brett Mirwald (28 saves / 30 shots)
Wenatchee: Loss – Brendan Gee (30 saves / 36 shots)

NOTEWORTHY:

The Giants scored all six goals of their goals at even strength
12 Giants had at least one point, while five had multi-point nights (Gronick, Thorpe, Leslie, Lipinski and Cull)
Thorpe has goals in three consecutive games to start the season and has already equaled his goal output from all of last season, when he scored four goals in 48 GP
Vancouver’s penalty kill remains unblemished, going 15-for-15 through the first three games
The 4-2 and 5-2 goals came within a span of 36 seconds
Sunday was the first time this season the Giants scored a goal in all three periods

NEXT GAME:

The Giants will hit the road at the end of the week for a battle on Saturday, Oct. 7 with the Portland Winterhawks. It is the only game they will play next weekend.

Their next home game is Friday, Oct. 13 against the Swift Current Broncos.

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B.C. Division