The Vancouver Giants broke a couple of trends in their playoff opener.
One was a positive for them. The Giants went 0-for-12 on the power play in their four regular season meetings with the Spokane Chiefs. On Friday at the Langley Events Centre, the Giants scored on their first man advantage of their best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinal against the Chiefs, with Jaden Lipinski deftly deflecting a Cameron Schmidt pass home to give Vancouver a 1-0 Game 1 lead at 13:44 of the first period.
The other busted tendency wasn’t in the Giants’ favour. Vancouver had gone 19-2-1-0 when leading after one period in the regular season. The Giants took that 1-0 cushion into the first intermission, but couldn’t build on it this time. The Chiefs tallied twice in the second period and twice more in the third and came away with a 4-1 victory before the announced crowd of 3,015.
WHL regular season scoring champion Andrew Cristall tallied twice for the Chiefs. The Washington Capitals prospect is from Vancouver and he had a large contingent of friends and family in the stands. Ollie Kolzig, the longtime Capitals goalie who’s now part of the team’s player development department, was also on hand.
Game 2 between the Giants and Chiefs is Sunday (4 p.m.) at the LEC, and then the next three games are scheduled for Spokane, beginning with Game 3 on Wednesday. The Chiefs (45-20-1-2) are the third seed and the Giants (34-26-8-0) are the sixth, and the unusual series set-up is a result of Spokane’s home rink hosting NCAA women’s basketball this weekend.
“They played well, and so did we. I thought our game was really good. No issues with our game whatsoever,” Giants coach Manny Viveiros said after. “Made a mistake on the first goal – got caught out of position a little bit on the back check. We weren’t in position – they took advantage of it. [They’re] a quick team and we know that. Second goal they scored deflected. It was going wide. So a little bit unlucky. But other than that, I thought we did a really good job of what we wanted to do tonight.
“We had some really good looks. Some Grade-A chances and we just didn’t finish. That’s the way it is. Spokane is a heck of a team, but I liked the way we played. I liked the way we stuck with it. They locked us down a little bit after they made it 3-1. They made it a lot harder through the neutral zone. That’s something we’ll have to work on a little bit as far as getting through that neutral zone with a little bit more speed, playing a little faster, but other than that I’ve got no qualms with the way our kids played tonight.”
Vancouver veteran winger Ty Halaburda added: “We’re not going to get too many looks. The ones that we do, we need to bear down and make sure that we score.”
The Giants did have a glorious opportunity to go up 2-0 with 2:45 to go in the first when they went off on a 4-on-2 break moments after Schmidt had come out of the penalty box following serving a slashing minor. They got the puck way into too tight on Spokane goalie Dawson Cowan, and even though Schmidt eventually fired one into the net it was waved off due to Mazden Leslie’s incidental contact with the netminder.
It’s easy to wonder what a 2-0 lead going into the intermission would have done for Vancouver’s chances on the night.
The game did have an edgy feel for it, with several scrums after whistles and lots of hits on both sides. Halaburda says that Vancouver’s plan is to play it physical.
“It’s not going to be easy. If we can keep it going, it will take a toll on them,” he said.
Burke Hood was once again strong in the Vancouver, as the 17-year-old rookie made 40 saves. Cristall’s second goal came with 1:45 to go and Hood on the bench in favour of an extra attacker. Cowan made 26 saves for Spokane.
Other Spokane goals came from Assanali Sarkenov and Sam Oremba.
Vancouver went 0-3-1-0 versus Spokane in the regular season. This is the teams’ first playoff series since the Giants beat the Chiefs in the Western Conference final in 2019. Vancouver went on to lose in seven games in the league finale against the Prince Albert Raiders.
The Giants are looking for their first series win since upsetting the Everett Silvertips in the first round in 2022.
*Photo by Rob Wilton
B.C. Sports Page 
Leave a comment