Weirdest Vancouver Giants’ game ever? The 7-5 loss to the Spokane Chiefs Sunday has to be up there

The events you’re about to read really happened, no matter how illogical it may all seem.

The Spokane Chiefs beat the Vancouver Giants 7-5 Sunday night to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven WHL Western Conference quarterfinal. 

And this is where things get messy. Vancouver allowed 33 shots in the second period alone. Spokane had 40 shots by the midway point of the game, putting them on pace for 80 and leaving plenty of folks wondering what the league record for shots in a game is. (Spoiler alert: it remains 85, set by the Brandon Wheat Kings in 1979.)

Spokane went up 6-0 on the scoreboard on a Berkly Catton tally at 0:43 of the third period. Against all odds and any rational explanation, Vancouver came storming back. Adam Titlbach scored 19 seconds after the Catton marker to get Vancouver on the board. Fast forward from there and Colton Roberts’ goal at 12:06 cut the Spokane margin to 6-4.

At 16:15 of the third, Spokane’s Andrew Cristall was assessed a cross-checking major for getting his stick up on Vancouver’s Mazden Leslie. Cristall, who was the league’s scoring champion in the regular season, was ejected, and Vancouver was set to finish game on a man advantage.

They cut the lead to 6-5 with Tyler Thorpe’s goal at 16:50. The Giants had two or three legit cracks to score after that, but couldn’t put one past Chiefs goalie Dawson Cowan. And then a couple of Giants wound up getting crossed up while handling the puck in the neutral zone, and that allowed Catton a free ride to the empty net for an insurance score with eight seconds.

There’s been lots of ups and downs with the Giants this season. Sunday’s game should have come with seat belts, considering how erratically the momentum seemed to shift.

The shots were 16-10 in Spokane’s favour in the first period and 33-8 in the second. In third, it was Vancouver up 19-8 in shots, leaving the Chiefs with a 57-37 margin overall by game’s end. 

“Just not giving up…just telling them that we’re not going to go away,” Leslie said when asked about what the conversations in the Giants dressing room during second period intermission consisted of. “I think the first and third periods we were doing the things we want to do. The second period they got the 33 shots. That obviously can’t happen.”

Mathis Preston had three goals for the Chiefs. Cameron Schmidt put up one goal and three assists for Vancouver.

The Chiefs (45-20-1-2) were the third seed in the West after the regular season and Vancouver (34-26-8-0) was sixth, but Spokane’s rink had an NCAA women’s basketball regional tournament this weekend, so the Giants hosted the first two games. To bring home ice advantage back to the Chiefs, they are slated to host the next three games of the set, starting with Game 3 on Wednesday.

“We just kind of get away from the simple things,” Schmidt said when asked about what goes wrong for Vancouver when they struggle. “The game plan gets away from us and it leads to breakdowns and whatnot. I think we just need to limit those breakdowns and we’ll be OK.”

All non-fighting major penalties are automatically reviewed by the league office and game suspensions can be assessed. Cristall doesn’t a history (34 PIMs this year), and Leslie returned to action, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he doesn’t receive any supplemental discipline on the play. 

(Rob Wilton photo)