RECAP: Winterhawks Second Period Flurry Leads Them Past Giants

Category: ArticleDecember 7, 2024

Portland, OR – The Vancouver Giants lost 7-2 to the Portland Winterhawks on Saturday night at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, in a contest where Portland erased a 2-1 deficit by scoring six unanswered goals between the second and third periods.

The loss drops Vancouver’s record to 12-11-4 this season, while the Winterhawks improve to 14-11-2.

The game turned in the second period, when the Hawks scored four of their seven goals.

Kyle Chyzowski and Diego Buttazzoni each scored a pair, while Tyson Yaremko, Alex Weiermair and Alex McDonough each had a goal for the home side. Portland’s power play went 3-for-5.

Colton Roberts and Mazden Leslie provided the offence for the Giants, each with a power play marker.

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GAME SUMMARY

The Giants first period was commendable, as they scored the first goal 4:58 into the contest, off a point shot from Roberts that found its way through traffic to the back of the net.

Colton Roberts on a power play!!!

Your G-Men open the scoring, 4:52 into the first.@TheWHL | @SanJoseSharks | #SJSharks pic.twitter.com/8NS1snA0Kr

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) December 8, 2024

Vancouver built off this early momentum to generate chances and offensive zone time, until Yaremko of the Winterhawks tied the game with 5:09 remaining in the period.

Just 1:26 into period two, Leslie put Vancouver back out in front, where he snapped a shot from the left circle past the glove side of goaltender Ondrej Štěbeták.

Giants Captain Mazden Leslie with a power play goal, second PP goal for Vancouver!@TheWHL pic.twitter.com/zC1XDzSkNJ

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) December 8, 2024

The Winterhawks responded quickly, with Chyzowski making it 2-2 less than two minutes later, when he was uncovered deep in the Giants zone and roofed it on the backhand.

Several minutes later, Buttazzoni would give the Hawks their first lead of the night at 3-2, before Chyzowski extended the lead to 4-2 just a few minutes later.

Buttazzoni made it 5-2 on his second of the night with 2:13 left in the second period.

In the third, Weiermair notched his first WHL goal in his first WHL game on a power play to make it 6-2, before McDonough added one more tally to make the finals core 7-2.

STATISTICS

SOG: VAN — 12/8/4 = 24 | POR – 13/14/16 = 43
PP: VAN—2/3 | POR — 3/5
Face-Offs: VAN — 33 | POR — 34

THEY SAID IT

“You’ve got to manage [pucks] really well against this team because they’re so fast. They get above you quick and counter on you. So I thought [in the first period] with our management, we were aggressive, we were pursuing it hard. We just weren’t disciplined in our game tonight through 60 minutes. Penalty trouble. We were getting undisciplined with our sticks. And then even within our game, it just seemed like they get a couple and we just couldn’t sustain what we were doing early on. Disappointing for sure because the start was quite good.” – Giants Associate Coach Adam Maglio

3 STARS

1st: POR – Tyson Jugnauth – 6A, 3 SOG, +4
2nd: POR – Kyle Chyzowski – 2G, 1A, 10 SOG, +2
3rd: POR – Alex Weiermair– 1G, 1A, 4 SOG, +2

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Vancouver: LOSS – Matthew Hutchison (36 saves / 43 shots)
Portland: WIN – Ondrej Štěbeták (22 saves / 24 shots)

UPCOMING

Date	Opponent	Time	Location
Sunday, December 8	Portland	4:00 PM PT	Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Friday, December 13	Victoria	7:05 PM PT	Save on Foods Memorial ArenaECAP:
Saturday, December 14	Victoria	7:00 PM PT	Langley Events Centre

B.C. Division