RECAP: Keller Hat-Trick Leads Blazers Past Giants

Category: ArticleNovember 15, 2024

Langley, B.C. – The Vancouver Giants were defeated 6-2 by the Kamloops Blazers on Friday night at the Langley Events Centre.

The Giants’ record now sits at 9-6-3 this season, while the Blazers improve to 11-9-1.

Providing the offence for the G-Men in this one were a pair of 16-year-olds, with Brett Olson scoring his first career WHL goal and Tyus Sparks tallying his third goal in the last four games.

Jordan Keller led the way for the Blazers with a hat-trick, while Kai Matthew, Emmitt Finnie and Nathan Behm also each found the back of the net.

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GAME SUMMARY

The Blazers scored the only goal of the first period after Matthew slid home a rebound off a shot from the left circle from Matteo Koci.

Just 27 seconds into the second period, Finnie doubled Kamloops lead to 2-0 on a beautiful individual effort as he took the puck down the right wing, put it between his legs to create some separation and then tucked it under the arm of Hood for his 13th goal of the season.

Just over five minutes later, Behm gave the visitors a 3-0 lead on his 14th of the season.

Vancouver got some life when Sparks snapped home his third goal of the year from the top of the right circle.

Sparksy gets the G-Men on the board!

Tyus Sparks with his 3rd of the season makes it a 3-1 game.@TheWHL pic.twitter.com/KVLRQcrHI4

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) November 16, 2024

However, Kamloops got two quick ones back, both off the stick of Keller. First, he scored shorthanded when he drove to the net and put away his own rebound. Then, he buried a rebound off a point shot from Layton Feist.

Olson cut the Blazers lead to 5-2 when he sniped his first career goal past Ernst on the blocker side on a 2-on-1 rush.

Brett Olson's first goal of many 🔥@WHLGiants pic.twitter.com/1lOseHUiwE

— The WHL (@TheWHL) November 16, 2024

Although the Giants out-shot the Blazers 15-6 in the third period, it was far too little, too late.

Keller completed the hat-trick into the empty net with 2:58 remaining in regulation to make it a 6-2 final score.

THEY SAID IT

“We weren’t very good. I thought we were really flat tonight, for whatever reason. We had a good week of practice. We talked about what we needed to do. We came out flat. We just couldn’t get anything going with our group tonight. You’re not going to win in this league when your 16-year-olds are your best players on the ice. Our go-to guys, they weren’t good tonight and they’ve got to lead the way, all the way through. Right through our leadership group, our captains, all the way through, including our goaltending. We need some saves and we need to be, as a group, we’ve go help our goaltenders out even more in some areas. I wasn’t very happy with it. It’s a good reset.” – Head Coach Manny Viveiros

STATISTICS

SOG: VAN — 8/10/15 = 33 | KAM – 11/10/6 = 27
PP: VAN—0/4 | KAM — 1/3
Face-Offs: VAN — 27 | KAM — 31

3 STARS

1st: KAM – Jordan Keller – 3G, 1A, 6 SOG, +4
2nd: KAM – Emmitt Finnie – 1G, 1A, 3 SOG, +2
3rd: VAN – Brett Olson – 1st WHL Goal, 4 SOG

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Vancouver: LOSS – Burke Hood (15 saves / 20 shots); Replaced by Matthew Hutchison (6 saves on 6 shots)
Kamloops: WIN – Dylan Ernst (31 saves / 33 shots)

UP NEXT

Date	Opponent	Time	Location
Saturday, November 16	Portland Winterhawks	7:00 PM PT	Langley Events Centre
Friday, November 22	Kelowna Rockets	7:05 PM PT	Prospera Place
Saturday, November 23	Spokane Chiefs	7:00 PM PT	Langley Events Centre

B.C. Division