Vancouver Giants Logen Hammett celebrated his birthday just the way any aspiring young hockey player would dream of – by scoring a goal in playoff contention on home ice.
In fact, the Giants lone goal came off the stick of this 21-year-old, left-handed defenceman from Regina Wednesday night at Langley Events Centre, in Game 3 of the WHL opening round series against the Everett Silvertips.
Birthday boy with the birthday goal!! 🥳
— X - Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) April 4, 2024
Start the 'Happy Birthday Logen' thread rn!!! 👇#GiantNewEra | #WHLPlayoffs | #FeedingTheFuture pic.twitter.com/z74XvzhGtx
Heading into play Wednesday night, the Giants and Silvertips were tied 1-1 in the series.
But Everett got two power play goals and 30 saves from Tyler Palmer securing a 3-1 win over the G-Men, and giving them a 2-1 game lead in this best-of-seven series.
The Silvertips came flying out of the gate, out-shooting Vancouver 14-3 in the first half of the opening frame, which eventually led to their goal.
It was defenceman Parker Berge who got that tally, one-timing a shot on the man advantage from the right point off a pass from Austin Roest, recounted Nathan Kanter, the Giants’ director of communications.
The Giants took back the momentum in the back half of the period, but couldn’t beat netminder Tyler Palmer on any of their 12 first period shots, which included some incredibly high-danger chances.
Vancouver continued to apply pressure early in the second period and were eventually rewarded, getting the equalizer at the 5:12 mark after Hammett’s shot from the left point snuck through and beat Palmer low on the blocker side.
Just a few minutes later, the Giants were whistled for a double minor for high sticking.
On the second half of that four-minute power play, Everett took the lead on a controversial goal.
Co-captain Ben Hemmerling scored on a shot from the side of the net that crossed the goal line after the net had come off its mooring. Even though the puck crossed when the net wasn’t on properly, it counted, even after video review showed the net was indeed off, because of a rule in the WHL rule book.
The Silvertips got a massive insurance marker 12:14 into the third period off the stick of Rymon, who whacked home a rebound to make it 3-1 for Everett.
Vancouver pushed hard in the final minutes, but Palmer turned aside all 11 shots he faced in the third period to make it a 3-1 final score.
Overall, head coach Manny Viveiros was proud of his players’ efforts Wednesday.
“We competed hard. We had some really good looks tonight. It’s a matter of [having] to finish sometimes. We’ve really got to finish those opportunities,” he said.
“If we don’t have those chances, then I really worry, [but] we put ourselves in a good position to score. We’ve still got to learn the details of playoff hockey. We’ve got to be a little bit more disciplined in certain areas of our game, but for the most part I liked our effort here. I thought we could have won the game tonight.”
When the game was over, and players and coaches could focus on the number, they say that the G-Men were close in the number of shots fired at Silvertips goalie Palmer. Giants had 31 shots on goal, Hammett’s the only one making it past Palmer. Meanwhile, G-Men’s star netminder Brett Mirwald – this week crowned B.C.’s goaltender of the year – managed to stop 32 of 35 pucks fired at his net.
The next game in the series is this Friday, starting at 7 p.m., again at the Langley Events Centre. Tickets are still available online.
Game 5 will be played Sunday afternoon, April 7, back in Everett.
RELATED WITH VIDEO: Vancouver Giants lose second game against Everett
and
READ MORE WITH VIDEO: Vancouver Giants win Game 1 in best-of-7 against Everett
