Vancouver Giants Week in Review

To say it’s been a great week for the Vancouver Giants franchise is a massive understatement. The Giants wrapped up two wins, the head coach reached a major milestone, the franchise player earned some revenge and the captain took home some league honors. All this while a former Giant stormed into town and grabbed headlines.

Vancouver Giants

The Milan Lucic Show
The Boston Bruins arrived in town early on Tuesday morning and there was a ton of media waiting for them. Well, more for Milan Lucic than anybody else. The former Vancouver Giant, who made the Bruins at 19 after leading the Giants to the Memorial Cup in 2007, played his first game as an NHLer in his hometown. Born and raised in Vancouver Lucic was a fan favorite at the Pacific Coliseum and while his surprising jump to the NHL last season caught everybody off guard, nobody disparaged what the heart and soul of the Giants had accomplished.

With numerous Giants fans in attendance, as well as the entire current Giants team, Lucic was named the game’s third star and received a rousing ovation on nearly every shift.

Tri-City Americans 3 Vancouver Giants 4
The following night the Giants hosted the Tri-City Americans at the Coliseum. The Giants erased deficits of 2-1 and 3-2 and scored twice in the third period to win 4-3.

Casey Pierro-Zabotel, Craig Cunningham, Andrej Kudrna and Garry Nunn scored for the Giants. Tyson Sexsmith stopped 19 of 22 Tri-City shots to earn his seventh win of the season. Defenseman Craig Schira had two assists and was named the game’s second star.

Brandon Wheat Kings 3 Vancouver Giants 4
Saturday night saw one of the most highly anticipated match-ups of the season. The game featured Brandon Wheat Kings forward Brayden Schenn, expected to be the top player drafted out of the WHL this season, going head-to-head against Vancouver’s Evander Kane, expected to be the second player plucked by NHL teams.

Kane left a lot of doubt in the minds of scouts as he scored one goal and one assist to lead the Giants to a 4-1 lead before the Wheat Kings scored twice to make the score look a lot closer than it actually was. Schenn, the younger brother of current Maple Leaf Luke Schenn, was -1 on the night and had no points.
The win was the 400th in Don Hay’s illustrious coaching career and he was awarded the Hard Hat after the game – an honor typically bestowed upon the hardest work Giant for that game.

Blum Best of the Month
Jonathan Blum had a great start to the Western Hockey League season and was awarded Monday with the Player-of-the-Month honors for September/October. Blum scored four goals, added 11 assists and was +20. The Giants have yet to lose in regulation this season and a lot of the credit needs to go to the Captain.

This is likely Blum’s final season in the WHL before graduating to the American Hockey League or National Hockey League next season in the Nashville Predators system.

Double Dip in Prince George
This week the Giants will travel to Prince George for back-to-back games against the Cougars. The matchups pit two undefeated streaks against each other. The Giants, 12-0-0-3 this season, haven’t posted a loss in regulation while the Cougars, 8-9-0-1, have not lost in regulation at home. The only blackmark on the Cougars home record was a shootout loss to the Wheat Kings.

Game times both nights is 7 p.m.

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