Vancouver Giants dropped a 6-5 overtime decision against Portland Winterhawks on Saturday night, Nov. 16 inside the Langley Events Centre.
Cameron Schmidt scored a pair of goals for Vancouver for his eighth multi-goal game of the season, while Tyler Thorpe, Ty Halaburda and Colton Roberts also scored for the G-Men, who have now lost four straight games.
Six different Winterhawks scored: Kyle Chyzowski, Tyson Yaremko, Diego Buttazzoni, Josh Zakreski, Kyle McDonough and Thompson, who ended the game with 1:01 left in the 3-on-3 overtime.
Winterhawks opened the scoring on a power play four minutes into the contest when Chyzowski sniped one high from the left circle.
Vancouver responded not long after with two goals in 26 seconds. First it was Schmidt putting home the loose puck after Jaden Lipinski was robbed for his 21st of the season.
That was followed up by Thorpe's eighth of the season thanks to a good pass from the right wall from Jakob Oreskovic.
Just 25 seconds into the second period, the Giants scored the prettiest goal of the night when Lipinski and Halaburda connected for a tap-in goal, making it 3-1.
Portland got back to within one on another power play when Yaremko got a pass from the goal line from Chyzowski and chipped it past Hutchison's blocker to cut Vancouver's lead to 3-2.
Then Vancouver responded with a pair of power play goals of their own.
At the 6:02 mark of the second, Schmidt scored his second of the night and 22nd of the season from the right face-off dot to make IT 4-2.
Several minutes later, Roberts' point shot beat goaltender Marek Schlenker cleanly to give the G-Men a 5-2 advantage.
Before the second period came to a close, the Giants three-goal lead evaporated, after the Winterhawks scored three times in a span of 2:32.
Buttazzoni, Zakreski and McDonough all scored one after the other to stun the crowd and tie the game 5-5 after 40 minutes.
Neither team could score in the third period, which included some big stops from Hutchison on a pair of Winterhawks power plays.
Overtime saw non-stop action with each goaltender coming up big a couple times, before Thompson took a pass from Yaremko on a 2-on-1 and ended it with a shot to the top corner from the left circle.
On Friday, Nov. 15, Vancouver fell to Kamloops 6-2.
Providing the offence for Vancouver were a pair of 16-year-olds, with Brett Olson scoring his first career WHL goal and Tyus Sparks tallying his third goal in the last four games.
Head coach Manny Viveiros thought the team was “really flat.”
“We just couldn’t get anything going with our group tonight,” Viveiros said.
“You’re not going to win in this league when your 16-year-olds are your best players on the ice. Our go-to guys, they weren’t good tonight and they’ve got to lead the way, all the way through. Right through our leadership group, our captains, all the way through, including our goaltending. I wasn’t very happy with it.”
Next, Giants play Kelowna Rockets Friday, Nov. 22 at Prospera Place. Puck drops at 7:05 p.m.
