RECAP: Winterhawks' Strong First Leads to Win Over Giants

RECAP: Winterhawks’ Strong First Leads to Win Over Giants

Category: ArticleOctober 7, 2023

Tags: portland winterhawks vancouver giants

PHOTO BY: KEITH DWIGGINS

Portland, OR – The Vancouver Giants lost to the Portland Winterhawks 6-2 on Saturday night at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, dropping their record to 2-2-0-0 this season.

The Winterhawks came ready to play, out-shooting the Giants 24-6 in the first period and taking a 4-1 lead into the first intermission. They improve to 4-1-0-0 with the victory and have won four in a row.

Logen Hammett and Connor Dale had the tallies for the G-Men, while Brett Mirwald was incredibly busy all night and made several fantastic stops. He finished with 45 saves.

CLICK FOR THE OFFICIAL WHL BOXSCORE

GAME SUMMARY:

The Giants scored first in this one.

Cameron Schmidt led a 2-on-1 during 4-on-4 play just a few minutes into the first and sent a perfect cross-ice pass to Hammett, who one-timed it pass goaltender Jan Špunar to make it 1-0 at the 3:11 mark.

It didn’t take long for the home side to turn the tide.

Just 1:05 after Hammett’s goal, Luca Cagnoni fired a shot from the left circle that hit the post and ricocheted in to tie the game.

Within a minute of that goal, Diego Buttazzoni gave Portland a 2-1 lead, scoring his third of the season.

Mirwald would then make a number of key stops to keep his club in the game, but with 5:12 to go in the opening period, Carter Sotheran beat him with a shot to the blocker side off the rush to make it 3-1.

JUST GLOVELY!🤯@WHLGiants pic.twitter.com/Lcui5Z6NfZ

— The WHL (@TheWHL) October 8, 2023

Late in the first, Vancouver found themselves on a 5-on-3 kill and couldn’t escape cleanly, with Buttazzoni scoring his second of the game off a one-timer to make to make it 4-1 for Portland.

Halfway through the second, the Winterhawks scored a pair of power play goals within a span of 1:09, first Buttazzoni completed the hat-trick thanks to another one-time blast, and then Davies deflected a shot home to make it 6-1.

The Giants looked much better in the third period, out-shooting the Winterhawks 11-10 and getting a power play goal from Connor Dale to make the final score 6-2.

Daler answers with PP🚨#GiantNewEra pic.twitter.com/qMoXpogmn5

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) October 8, 2023

THEY SAID IT:

“We certainly didn’t start on time tonight. We had issues in the first period with discipline being one, our puck management being two and it snowballed from there for us. The one positive is I thought our response in the third was okay. I liked getting that power play goal. Hopefully that jump starts things on the PP unit. But overall we just weren’t ready to go tonight from puck drop.” – Associate Coach Adam Maglio post-game

STATISTICS

SOG: VAN — 6/8/11 = 25 | POR – 24/17/10 = 51
PP: VAN — 1/4 | POR — 3/6
Face-Offs: VAN — 28 | POR — 36

3 STARS

1st: POR – Diego Buttazzoni – 3G, 1A, 4 SOG, +2
2nd: POR – Carter Sotheran – 1G, 2A, 2 SOG, +2
3rd: POR – Luca Cagnoni – 1G, 1A, 6 SOG, +1

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Vancouver: Loss – Brett Mirwald (45 saves / 51 shots)
Portland: Win – Jan Špunar (23 saves / 25 shots)

NOTEWORTHY:

Mirwald’s 45 save performance is the third-highest single-game total of his WHL career. In Game 2 of the first round of the 2023 playoffs, he made 49 saves against Kamloops and on Feb. 4, 2023, he made 51 saves, also against Kamloops
Giants forward Aaron Obobaifo picked up his first career WHL point, with an assist on Dale’s goal
Giants defenceman Logen Hammett scored his first goal as a Giant, after being acquired from Brandon this summer

NEXT GAME:

The Giants host the Swift Current Broncos on Friday, Oct. 13, which will be the Broncos first visit to the LEC since Oct, 19, 2019, when Bowen Byram was the first star in a 4-3 shootout win.

For tickets, CLICK HERE.

B.C. Division