Giants Win Season Opener
The Vancouver Giants kicked off the 2011-12 season with a convincing 5-2 victory over the Victoria Royals Friday night at the Pacific Coliseum. With the win, the Giants improve to 7-3-0-0 and 1 tie in home openers.
The first 10 minutes saw both teams trying to sort things out, but it was the Giants with the better chances. They would get on the board with 1:38 left in the period as Anthony Ast scored his 1st career WHL goal on a nice feed from Cain Franson. Vancouver led 1-0 after 20 minutes.
The Giants added to their lead in the second period. Marek Tvrdon tipped home a Kiefer McNaughton point shot to give the home side a 2-0 advantage. Franson would make it a 3-0 game after beating Braden Gamble high on the short side. The Giants were in full control through 40 minutes.
Victoria finally got on the board in the third courtesy of Steven Hodges. However, the Giants would restore their three goal advantage 8 minutes later as Jordan Martinook ripped home his first of the season. Robin Soudek made things interesting late when he converted a feed from Brandon Magee to cut the lead to 2 goals. Dalton Sward would ice the game with an empty netter to give the Giants the 5-2 victory. Brendan Jensen made 26 saves in net, including robbing Kevin Sundher point blank three times, to earn the win in net. Both teams struggled on the power play. Vancouver was 0-for-6, while Victoria went 0-for-3.
These two teams will do it all over again tomorrow night in Victoria, as the Royals host their home opener at the Save-On Foods Memorial Centre. Game time is 7:05pm. The pregame show begins at 6:30pm on AM 650.
