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Giants goalie clocks more than 50 saves

It was an up-and-down weekend for the Langley-based junior hockey team, home and away.
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Goalie Ryan Kubic is credited with numerous saves over two recent Giants games.

After falling to the Prince George Cougars Tuesday night in overtime, the Langley-based Vancouver Giants came back to defeat the Brandon Wheat Kings in an overtime victory on home ice Friday night.

Sadly, they sense of triumph was short lived as they travelled to Kamloops Saturday night, and fell to the Blazers 5-2.

In Friday night’s play, it was Dylan Plouffe who scored the overtime goal, lifting the G-Men to a 2-1 over the Wheat Kings, explained Giants marketing director Brendan Batchelor.

Plouffe gave Vancouver the victory when the Giants had an extra man on the ice due to a delayed penalty against Brandon, hammering a slap shot past Brandon goalie Logan Thompson from the right point.

That was Plouffe’s second goal of the season, and he joined teammate Matt Barberis on the scoreboard. Barberis delivered his goal early on in that game and gave the Giants a lead in the first half of the opening period.

But it was not just the offence who were credited with helping secure the Giants win Friday, however. Vancouver goalie Ryan Kubic made 25 saves on the Giants net that night – in particular making “an important stop on a one-timer from Wheat Kings defence man Kale Clague, Batchelor said.

The Wheat Kings out shot Vancouver 26-24.

While there wasn’t a huge difference in shots on goal against Brandon, Kamloops almost doubled that of the Giants on Saturday night, when the Blazers outshot the Giants 33-17 – the G-Men even went 0-for-4 on the power play.

But as was the case on Friday night, Kubic the goalie was again give credit. He made 28 saves during Saturday’ game.

On the lighters side of action Friday, the Giants hosted what they dubbed Pajama Party Night that night. They invited guests to wear their favourite PJs to the game while the team collected new children’s PJs to donate to the Langley Christmas Bureau.

That festive spirit continues later this week, when the Giants return home to the Langley Events Centre for the first game of what they’ve dubbed Ugly Christmas Sweater weekend.

On Friday, Dec. 9, they’ll take on the Everett Silvertips and on Saturday, Dec. 10, they’re going up against the Spokane Chiefs. Some might remember that the Giants were recently crushed (10-1) by the Chiefs during a visit to Spokane Nov. 25, and are hoping to redeem themselves when their U.S. counterparts visit LEC.

Anyway, the G-Men will wear ugly Christmas sweater jerseys for both games this coming weekend.

Speaking of being in the festive spirit, the Giants are planning another special holiday game later in the month, as well.

The Giants will wrap up the giving themed games with their annual teddy bear toss on Friday, Dec. 16. That’s the night they’re taking on the Portland Winterhawks at the LEC.

All home games start at 7:30 p.m., and tickets are available online at: click here or by calling 604-444-2687.

Giants fans given first dibs

For those hockey fans who haven’t heard already, the 43rd World Junior Championships are returning to B.C. in 2019.

That announcement came down Thursday, and with that news the Langley-based team announced that Giants season ticket holders will be getting first access to world junior tickets.

The championships will be held in Vancouver and Victoria, and Giants fans will have “exclusive” early access to tickets.

“We’re excited to be able to bring the World Juniors back to Vancouver for 2019,” said Giants majority owner Ron Toigo.

“We couldn’t have done this without an outstanding bid committee and the support of Premier Christy Clark and the BC government. As was the case in 2006, we’re excited to be able to offer our season ticket holders first priority for tickets to the 2019 World Juniors.”

 



Roxanne Hooper

About the Author: Roxanne Hooper

I began in the news industry at age 15, but honestly, I knew I wanted to be a community journalist even before that.
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