Silvertips sneak by Giants
4-3 in Shootout

October 15, 2008
Pacific Coliseum - Vancouver BC


Dave Sheldon - Vancouver Giants
Mike Piluso stopped by Shayne Barrie (Chris Relke Photo)

Vancouver BC – The Vancouver Giants closed out their five game home stand tonight and came out on the wrong end of a 4-3 shootout loss to the Everett Silvertips.

The Giants opened the scoring as James Wright picked up a loose puck in the Everett zone, undressed forward Kyle Beach, then finished off a beautiful play by stuffing the biscuit short side on Everett goalie Shayne Barrie. Wright's sixth goal of the year put the Giants on the board, 1-0 after one period of play.

The second period saw the Giants continue to apply pressure. It wasn't until a Vancouver power play, their first of the game, late in the second period, before Vancouver was able to double their lead. Vancouver Captain Jonathon Blum was able to sneak in from the point on the power play and redirect a perfect feed from Casey Pierro-Zabotel into the Everett goal. At 16:37 of period two, the Giants extended their lead to 2-0.

To their credit, the Silvertips showed that they could hang in there with Vancouver. Despite being outshot 28-13 through the first two periods, Everett, led by Barrie in goal, hung around. At 7:29, Everett cut the lead to 2-1 as Kyle Beach jumped on a loose puck and skated in on a breakaway from centre ice. Beach buries his third goal of the season and we have a hockey game, it's now 2-1. Everett and Vancouver continued to trade chances, until rookie Kellan Tochkin tripped up Blum with five minutes to play to put the Tips down a man. Vancouver once again flexed their power play muscle, this time Mike Piluso took advantage of a Barrie miscue behind the net. Barrie went behind his goal to play a puck shot in by Craig Schira, but had to wait as the puck was slowed by the rough ice late in the period. Before the young goalie could play the puck or get back in position, Evander Kane streaked in, picked up the loose puck and fired a dart onto the stick of Piluso. Piluso would make no mistake, pumping his shot past an out of position Barrie and the game seemed to be in hand for Vancouver. It was 3-1 Giants with 3:24 on the clock. Not so fast...

Tochkin, who took the penalty that led to the 3-1 Giants goal, knocked a goal in from the corner of the Giants zone just 23 seconds later. Simply trying to centre the puck, the Abbotsford resident had his pass bank in off a sea of players past Tyson Sexsmith to make the lead 3-2. After pulling their goaltender and taking their time out, Everett was able to equalize. Tochkin again being the hero, converting a Shane Harper pass on the Giants doorstep and the Tips had come back with two goals in under two minutes to tie the game at three.

Overtime would solve nothing. After the Tips and Giants had to wait for an eternity to get the ice properly set up for the shootout, both teams decided to make it worth the wait. Eighteen shooters later, Matt Ius was able to beat Sexsmith blocker side. Ius wins it for the Tips and they move to 4-4-1 on the season. The shootout loss marks the second consecutive skills competition loss for the Giants, as they move to 7-0-0-3 on the season. Vancouver remains first in the WHL with 17 points through their first 10 games.

Vancouver will now hit the road for three games. Edmonton, Red Deer and Lethbridge will be the destination for the G-Men as they embark on their first of two trips in to the Central Division this season. The Giants will enjoy a rare weekend off and will not play again until next Wednesday, October 22nd at Rexall Place against the Edmonton Oil Kings. You can catch all of the action on SUPERHITS 650 CISL. Dave Sheldon will have the call, with the White Spot Pre Game Show at 5:30 p.m., drop of the puck against the Oil will be 6 p.m. Pacific.