A visit south of the 49th Parallel wasn’t all that a team of Langley hockey players hoped for this weekend.
After falling 3-2 to Kelowna on Friday, the Vancouver Giants lost 5-2 to the Everett Silvertips last night.
The Western Hockey League team that is based out of the Langley Events Centre, headed across the border with hopes of redeeming themselves and defeating the Silvertips Saturday. But it wasn’t to be the case, said play-by-play broadcaster Dan O’Connor.
Six different Silvertips recorded multi-point games and Carter Hart turned aside 22 of the 24 shots he faced in goal as Everett secured their third straight victory, while the Giants suffered their third straight defeat.
G-Men captain Tyler Benson and Dylan Plouffe supplied the goals for the Giants, while David Tendeck made 31 saves on 36 shots fired his way.
Everett’s power play went three-for-seven while the Giants went one-for-two in response.
At the 5:09 point in the first period, the Giants took the lead when Benson buried his eighth of the season in close on Carter Hart.
“Milos Roman fed a perfect pass through a pair of Everett defenders to Benson who did the rest,” O’Connor recounted.
Everett responded with two goals of their own in the final five minutes of the first.
At 15:01, defenceman Wyatte Wylie jumped up into the play, took a pass, and found an open seam that allowed him to skate in alone on Tendeck. The defenceman then stuffed home his first-ever WHL goal on a backhand deke to tie the game.
Everett then grabbed the lead at 18:23 of the period when Gianni Fairbrother’s shot from the right point found its way through traffic and in for his second of the season.
Fairbrother’s goal was the first of three power play goals on the night for the home team. Through one period the Silvertips led 2-1 and outshot the Giants 11-8.
Vancouver started the second period with only five available defencemen as rookie Bowen Byram left the game and did not return after a collision in the defensive zone in the waning seconds of the first period.
James Malm nearly tied the game early in period two for Vancouver, but he one-timed a Brayden Watts pass clean off the outside of the right post when Hart was out of position.
Moments later, Everett veteran Patrick Bajkov tucked home his 14th of the season off a failed clearing attempt at the 5:42 mark of the middle period.
“Everett could have added more goals to their credit, but David Tendeck had a strong second period stopping 14 of the 15 shots he faced,” O’Connor said.
Everett’s power play clicked twice in the first five minutes and 29 seconds of the third period.
First Riley Sutter beat Tendeck with a perfectly placed shot from the top of the right-wing circle at 1:58, then Bryce Kindopp netted his sixth on a five-on-three advantage to make it a 5-1 game.
A late power-play goal from defenceman Plouffe was the only remaining offense that the Giants could muster as the final horn sounded with Everett ahead 5-2.
Final shots were 36-24 for Everett.
Saturday’s loss in Everett puts the Giants 10-12-2-2, while the Silvertips are 13-12-1-1.
Despite the loss the Giants remain in third place in the B.C. division thanks to Kamloops defeating Prince George 4-3.
The Giants now lead both the Blazers and the Cougars by two points for that third divisional playoff spot.
Next up for Vancouver, they’re looking for a home-ice showdown with the defending WHL champs, the Seattle Thunderbirds, on Tuesday, Nov. 28 at the Langley Events Centre.