Friday night in Everett, Wash. the Langley-based Vancouver Giants earned a hard-fought 2-1 victory over the U.S. division leading Everett Silvertips.
Dawson Holt (4) and Tyler Benson (14) supplied second-period goals for the G-Men, while goaltender David Tendeck made 34 saves on 35 shots fired his way en route to his seventh victory during the month of December.
Matt Fonteyne supplied the lone goal for Everett early in the second. Friday’s loss marks just the second in a span of 14 games for Everett.
The first 20 minutes solved nothing, but it wasn’t for a lack of chances at either end of the ice.
Tendeck was busy early turning aside nine Everett shots within the first 12 minutes of the period.
On the flip side, the Giants trio of Owen Hardy, Brad Morrison, and Ty Ronning “had some good looks offensively” but Everett’s Dustin Wolf was up to the task. Shots were 11-6 after one favoring Everett, recounted Giants’ play-by-play broadcaster Dan O’Connor.
Then, 51 seconds into the middle period, Everett found pay-dirt when Fonteyne raced down the right wing, and one-timed home a pass from Patrick Bajkov off a two-on-one rush. Fonteyne’s 18th of the season would serve as Everett’s only goal of the night.
Moments later Everett nearly made it 2-0, but G-Men’s netminder, Tendeck, robbed Luke Ormsby with a glove save on a breakaway chance to keep the G-Men within one.
Tendeck’s teammates would reward him moments later with a pair of goals.
At 6:43, Holt parked himself in the left circle, took a left-wing feed from Brayden Watts and ripped home his fourth of the season past the glove of Wolf.
Then at the 12:19 mark the Giants caught a break when off a faceoff, Benson hopped on a loose puck and sent a quick low shot on the Everett goal.
The shot fooled Wolf as it snuck between his legs and across the line for Benson’s 14th. That goal would stand as the game-winner, but not without a valiant push-back from the home side. Everett outshot Vancouver 15-11 in the middle period but trailed 2-1 going into the third.
The final 20 minutes belonged to Tendeck, as he stopped all nine third-period attempts from the Everett Silvertips.
“He best save came point-blank off Patrick Bajkov who made a nifty move to the slot, but was denied by Tendeck’s glove,” O’Connor said. “With the net empty in the final minutes, the Silvertips had some other good looks, but timely saves from Tendeck and some key shot-blocks from Jared Dmytriw and Matt Barberis helped the Giants hang on for their 19th victory of the season and their first in three meetings against the Silvertips.”
Special teams weren’t a factor in the game, for either side, as the Giants went three-for-three killing penalties while going zero-for-two on their power play chances.
“The win improves the Giants overall record to 19-14-2-2 and moves them three points back of second placed Victoria in the B.C. division standings,” O’Connor noted.
Up next for the Langley-based team are back-to-back home games against the Prince George Cougars beginning tonight (Saturday, Dec. 30) at 7 p.m. at the Langley Events Centre.