Vancouver Giants won’t have to wait long for a shot at revenge.
The Langley-based hockey team fell 7-1 to the Victoria Royals Friday night, during the season opener on Vancouver Island. Saturday night, however, they’ll face that very same team at the Langley Events Centre, hoping to return the whooping, said media director Dan O’Connor.
Matthew Phillips paced the Royals attack with three goals and an assist while Ryan Peckford added two goals and an assist.
Ty Ronning had the lone tally for the Giants which came with less than 10 seconds remaining in the second period.
Special teams played a big part in the end result, as the Royals went three-for-eight on the power play and also scored shorthanded. The Giants went zero-for-six on their power play chances, O’Connor explained.
Victoria’s power play staked them to a 2-0 lead in the opening period.
Rookie Igor Martynov snuck a shot past Giants starter Todd Scott at the 3:12 mark to open the scoring.
Ryan Peckford then struck for his first of two on the night at 12:01 off a Dante Hannoun feed to increase Victoria’s lead. The shots favored Vancouver 12-9 after one.
Victoria would capitalize twice more in the middle frame. Just 12 seconds into the second period (while shorthanded) Phillips buried his first of three on the night to increase the Royals lead to 3-0.
Then at 18:15, Peckford notched his second of the night off an assist from Jared Legien.
Ronning answered for the Giants at the 19:52 mark of the frame when he converted off a two-on-one rush with Brad Morrison.
Morrison threaded a perfect pass through Royals defenceman Scott Walford, right onto the tape of Ronning, who wired a shot past a sprawled Griffen Outhouse from the right wing to make it 4-1.
Phillips completed his hat-trick thanks to two quick goals two minutes and 57 seconds apart early in the third period. Dino Kambeitz then nabbed the game’s final goal at 6:38 to make the score 7-1 Victoria.
David Tendeck relieved Todd Scott in goal for Vancouver and stopped the final four shots fired on the Vancouver goal.
Scott finished with 17 saves on 24 shots faced.
On the other side, Griffen Outhouse made 31 saves on 32 shots faced for Victoria, while rookie Dean McNabb went four-for-four when he played the final handful of minutes in net for Victoria.
The final shots were 36-28 for Vancouver who are now 0-1 on the young season.
The G-Men play their home opener tonight (Saturday, Sept. 23) at the Langley Events Centre (LEC). The puck drops at 7 p.m. Tickets are available online.
This is the Giants’ second season at LEC. The new season schedule includes thirteen Friday night games and nine Saturday night games.
