RECAP: Giants Win Third Straight, 3-1 Over Cougars

Category: ArticleMarch 9, 2025

Langley, B.C. – Vancouver Giants goaltender Burke Hood stayed hot on Sunday afternoon at the Langley Events Centre, making 36 saves in a 3-1 win over the Prince George Cougars.

The win is Vancouver’s 20th on home ice this season (20-9-3-0) and also their third victory in a row, improving their overall record this season to 31-24-8-0. The Giants win moved them past the Tri-City Americans and into sixth place in the Western Conference, just two points back of Portland for fifth.

Cameron Schmidt (36th), Connor Levis (23rd) and Mazden Leslie (20th, ENG) provided the goals for the G-Men, while Hood was named the first star yet again and now holds a 7-2-1 record over his last 10 starts.

Borya Valis had the lone Cougars tally.

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GAME SUMMARY

The Cougars opened the scoring on Sunday, when Valis struck just 3:36 into the game after he got in behind the Giants defence and put home his 33rd of the season.

Less than a minute into period two, the Giants got the equalizer on the power play off the stick of Schmidt, who took a cross-ice pass in the neutral zone from Leslie and flew past everyone, finishing top corner past Ravensbergen to tie the game.

Schmidty is SO back!

Cameron Schmidt nets his team-leading 36th goal of the season on the power play!@TheWHL | #NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/HaR4y6LtYG

— X – Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) March 10, 2025

Early in the third period, Giants forward Ty Halaburda worked the puck down low and got it to Schmidt in the left corner, who saw an open Levis heading to the slot. Levis’ quick shot just had enough to squeak through Ravensbergen to give Vancouver a 2-1 lead.

Not much you can do to stop Connor Levis 🤷@WHLGiants | @NHLJets | #GoJetsGo pic.twitter.com/n9FnD2xzOX

— Western Hockey League (@TheWHL) March 10, 2025

The Cougars pulled the goaltender for the extra attacker with 1:40 to go and just three seconds later, Leslie scored from his own zone with a shot that went right down main street. Leslie becomes just the third defenceman in franchise history to reach the 20-goal mark in a single season, joining Kevin Connauton (24 goals, 2009-10) and Bowen Byram (26 goals, 2018-19)

STATISTICS

SOG: VAN —8/12/8 = 28 | PG – 14/11/12= 37
PP: VAN—1/4 | PG — 0/2
Face-Offs: VAN — 32 | PG — 30

3 STARS

1st: VAN – Burke Hood – 36 Saves on 37 Shots
2nd: PG – Joshua Ravensbergen – 25 Saves on 27 Shots
3rd: VAN – Cameron Schmidt – 1G, 1A, 2 SOG, +1

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Vancouver: WIN – Burke Hood (36 saves / 37 shots)
Prince George: LOSS – Joshua Ravensbergen (25 saves / 27 shots)

THEY SAID IT

“I thought our guys stuck to what our game plan was tonight against this team. They came out pretty hard. We kind off got off to a little bit of a – not going to say a sleepy start at first, but we got our legs underneath us and got going after that and I thought we played really well after that . We’re catching PG on a 4-on-5, where we’ve been on that side before too and it’s tough, and they were going to sit back and just kind of wait for mistakes and part of our game plan is we said we’ve got to get after these guys. What we do in the first and second periods is going to pay off in the third period by being heavy on them and make them stop in their d-zone and defend. There’s no better way of tiring out an opposition than when they have to defend quite a bit and I thought we did a pretty good job.” – Head Coach Manny Viveiros on the game overall

“We challenged our players last week as far as what we need to do to get better in these last seven games coming into this weekend and how we need to fine tune our game and make some adjustments and improvement to get ready for playoffs. I thought these last two games were a really good indication of the work the kids have put in and we got the results here.” – Head Coach Manny Viveiros on the final stretch

“I thought Cameron Schmidt’s game tonight was the best game he’s played in two years. And I’m not talking about points. I’m talking about how he was around the net, how he was coming back into our zone, he was in position, he was defending hard and then he had that separation speed, last night and tonight, that was kind of missing for a little bit of time, but it was good to see him get that back again.” – Head Coach Manny Viveiros on Cameron Schmidt

THIS AND THAT

Leslie’s empty-net goal was his 20th goal of the season, making him just the third defenceman in franchise history to reach the 20-goal mark in a single season, joining Kevin Connauton (24 goals, 2009-10) and Bowen Byram (26 goals, 2018-19). His 68 points this season are four back of tying Connauton for the most points by a d-man in a single season (72, 2009-10)
Leslie became the sixth Giant this season to reach the 20-goal plateau, joining Schmidt (36), Halaburda (26), Thorpe (26), Titlbach (26) and Levis (23), which is tied for the most 20-goal scorers in the league along with Medicine Hat and Prince Albert
With 1G-1A, Schmidt increased his point streak to four games, with seven points over that span (2G-5A). Schmidt has 12 points in his last 10 games (2G-10A)
Levis’ 23rd goal of the season was the 99th goal of his career. He has 230 points in 282 career games
Ryan Lin collected an assist and is now one point shy of hitting 50 points. Lin would join Landon Dupont as the first WHL defencemen aged sixteen or younger to hit 50 points a single season since Scott Niedermayer in 1989-90

UPCOMING

The Giants head to Victoria next Friday before hosting them on Saturday, and then wrap up the weekend with a matinee in Portland on Sunday.

Date	Opponent	Time	Location
Friday, March 14	Victoria	7:05 PM PST	Save on Foods Memorial Centre
Saturday, March 15	Victoria	7:00 PM PST	Langley Events Centre
Sunday, March 16	Portland	4:00 PM PST	Veterans Memorial Coliseum

B.C. Division