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GAME SUMMARY

The Giants needed less than four minutes to open the scoring, as Matthew Edwards shot from the top of the left circle ricocheted off Levis in front of the net and went in to give Vancouver a 1-0 lead at the 3:22 mark of the opening period.

*blink* GIANTS GOAL!#GiantNewEra https://t.co/6hr7WQVIto pic.twitter.com/2OV8sO2T4i

— X – Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) March 13, 2024

The Americans cut the Giants lead in half 6:41 into the second period when Koch was wide open in the slot and beat Mirwald for his 10th of the year.

But before the second period was done, Vancouver restored their two-goal advantage, after a quick pass from Schmidt from the left corner out front to Lipinski, who provided a target and tapped it in to make the score 3-1.

Jaden Lipinski extends the lead to 3-1 VAN!#GiantNewEra pic.twitter.com/HV4KcmIMz6

— X – Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) March 13, 2024

After 40 minutes, the Giants not only had a two-goal lead, but were also out-shooting Tri-City 34-17.

Although the Giants couldn’t grab an insurance marker for most of the third period, Lipinski got his 20th of the season into the empty net with 1:09 left to make it 4-1, before Titlbach scored his ninth of the season with under a minute to play to make the final score 5-1.

THEY SAID IT

“These games are tough to play because it’s a game you’re expected to win and it’s a game that we needed to win and we knew that. We certainly weren’t – after the second game in Prince George – we weren’t happy with the effort we had that night. The first night we played, Friday there, I thought we played a really good hockey game. Tonight the kids, we came back, we re-set again. I thought it was a very business-like approach tonight. Our guys were really focused and dialled in. It was two points we needed tonight. For a while there, they hung around and hung around. We controlled the majority of the play, but we just weren’t able to get that extra, that third goal to kind of break it open. We kept saying ‘stay with our game.’ We were doing a lot of good things out there. We’re not giving them a lot of chances and those are the types of games that at this time of year, you have to be prepared to play and be able to finish out.” – Head Coach Manny Viveiros on the game overall

“We’ve said we wanted to clinch a playoff spot first, which we did on the weekend and then our second goal is that we want to get to fifth place. That’s still realistic for us. We had a game in hand, we made up two points on the other teams and we’ve got some of these other teams that we’re playing head to head here. So crucial weekend coming up here in the next five games that we have here. If we come out with a really good record out of these last five games, we have a good chance of fifth place and that’s what we want.” Head Coach Manny Viveiros on the standings