The Kelowna Rockets became just the second team in WHL history to win a playoff series after going down three games to none to the Seattle Thunderbirds. It was a dramatic series, with five of the seven games going to overtime, including the seventh and deciding game.
Tyson Baillie scored his third goal of the game at 5:10 of the first overtime period, on a back door pass from Madison Bowey that left him with 3/4 of the net to shoot at. It was Baillie’s seventh goal of the series, and erased the sour taste in the mouths of Kelowna fans after Seattle had tied the game with just seven seconds remaining in regulation.
The Kelowna Rockets are one of just three WHL teams to crack the 100-point barrier in the 2012-13 season, and finished second overall behind the powerhouse Portland Winterhawks. One reason for the team’s success has been their young #2 goaltender — and ex-Vancouver Giants backup — Jackson Whistle.
What a difference a year makes. In 2011-12, he played 21 games for the Vancouver Giants, and put up forgettable numbers (3.61 GAA, .873 save &) to earn exactly one win. This season, however, he played 21 games for his hometown Kelowna Rockets, and was positively stingy. He boasted a 1.96 goals against average, and stopped more than 93% of pucks directed at his net, good for 15 wins and just two losses in regulation time.
Over the next few months, I’ll be sharing some of my photos from the 2012-13 Vancouver Giants season that didn’t wind up attached to a story. Here’s the first, capturing a penalty shot on March 1 — 15-year-old Alec Baer was awarded a penalty shot with 2:27 remaining in the third period that could have won the game for the home team. He was stopped by Lethbridge Hurricanes goaltender Ty Rimmer, but the Giants went on to win in overtime. Read our original piece on Gordie Howe night here.
Alec Baer is largely regarded as one of the top high school-aged prospects out of Minnesota. As many American teens are not picked up in the bantam draft, it is not a big surprise that the Giants were able to sign him to a WHL Player Agreement (the junior equivalent to a free agent contract in the pro leagues). He was invited to the Giants rookie training camp at the beginning of the 2012-13 season, and left as the top scorer. He joined the Giants for six games late in the season, scoring once (March 8 vs the Victoria Royals) and adding an assist.
You don’t think two points in six games is anything to write home about? Well keep in mind this is a 15-year-old playing against 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds.
Baer was introduced to Hall of Famer, Stanley Cup Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist Joe Sakic exactly one month before this picture was taken, by Giants part-owner and ambassador Pat Quinn. Quinn said, “Joe, this young man just may be the next you.”
That conversation is one of the main reasons Baer decided to sign with the Giants instead of taking any one of numerous standing offers to join NCAA college clubs south of the border.
For the first time since their inaugural season in 2001-02, the Vancouver Giants find themselves on the outside looking in. While it’s tough for these young men to swallow right now, the Giants and their fans have enjoyed a remarkable run the past 12 years. They earned five consecutive BC Division banners from 2005-06 to 2009-10, and had at least 75 points every season between 2003-04 and 2011-12, including two Memorial Cup appearances (and one win). Numerous Giants alumni now pepper NHL rosters, including Milan Lucic, Cody Franson, Gilbert Brule, Jonathan Blum and now Brendan Gallagher.
On a star-studded night at the Pacific Coliseum, it was the Vancouver Giants second line that wrote the final script. Carter Popoff scored twice, including the overtime winner on a beautiful cross-body wrist shot, and the home side took a 5-4 decision over the visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes.
The shot you see below was the last shot of the game, as Popoff put the puck over the pad and below the blocker on Ty Rimmer. The Giants have now won three straight games for the first time this season.
In attendance for the game (besides Pucked in the Head loudmouth Jason Kurylo, who took this awesome photo if he does say so himself) were Hockey Hall of Fame players Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Dennis Hull, Marcel Dionne, Johnny Bower and broadcaster Jim Robson. Also in the building were a few guys with names like Orland Kurtenbach and Charlie Hodge. Oh, and Michael Bublé. You know, whoever that is supposed to be. Some famous cake delivery dude or something.
The Vancouver Giants scored three times on the power play and but for one exception kept opposition pucks out of their own net on Sunday on their way to a 4-1 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds. It was a rare treat for more than 8,500 Sunday afternoon fans at the Pacific Coliseum, as the Giants have had little success this season in either of those areas.
Brett Kulak, Brendan Rouse and Cain Franson each had a goal and an assist, while goaltender Payton Lee stopped 23 of 24 shots to collect his 10th win of the year. Carter Popoff had the other goal for the Giants. Left winger Alexander Delnov scored the lone goal for the Thunderbirds, taking advantage of a two-man advantage in the second period.
It was not the best of nights for Vancouver-area hockey fans. The Vancouver Giants, fresh off their most successful four-game stretch of the season — it speaks volumes that this step forward resulted in exactly one overtime win, two overtime losses and a regulation loss — put in a dismal performance at the Pacific Coliseum against a vastly superior Kamloops Blazers team.
The Abbotsford Heat returned to the AESC after a road trip that got them just one of a possible 10 points, and put up just one goal en route to a 5-1 loss to the Charlotte Checkers. And the Vancouver Canucks, full of healthy, award-winning forwards, relied on Roberto Luongo and Dale Weise to lull the Nashville Predators to sleep in a 1-0 snoozefest.
Prior to the game, many people in the Coliseum concourse could be heard discussing the Giants problems keeping the puck out of their own net to start games. Some quoted Don Hay’s post-game presser from a few weeks back, that the team aims to get through the first five minutes without allowing teams to open a lead. Then the puck dropped, and 10 seconds later it was 1-0 Kamloops Blazers.
More after the jump. Oh, and scroll to the very bottom of this post for a 2-for-1 coupon for the SFU Clan’s final two home games on February 23 and March 2. It’s top-notch college hockey, and you get two adults into Bill Copeland Arena for just five bucks a head.
The Vancouver Giants kicked off February much the same way they’ve spent every other month this season, with back-to-back losses to the Kelowna Rockets. Outscored by a combined score of 10-1 in the home-and-home series, the G-men continue to mess with a troublesome combination: they can’t score, and have trouble keeping pucks out of their own net.
In fact, no other team has given up as many goals as the Giants in 2012-13. They’ve allowed 229 goals in 53 outings, or 4.32 goals per game. Combine that with the fifth-worst offense — 142 goals, or 2.68 per game — and it’s a recipe for just 13 wins all season. Sitting squarely at the bottom of the Western Hockey League table, the Giants have been all but mathematically eliminated from the playoff race. With 19 games remaining, they sit 17 points out of a playoff spot in the WHL Western Conference. Keep in mind that this is a system that admits eight of ten teams into the post-season dance. This will be the first time the Giants don’t make the playoffs since their inaugural season in 2001-02.
One of the biggest problems for this year’s team is a lack of skill. It’s a roster full of pluggers — hey, that can be entertaining, if everyone works hard for 60 minutes, but the team has a predilection for mental lapses and facepalm-worthy errors on a nightly basis. Case in point, Kelowna’s first goal in the 5-1 loss on Friday night: just seconds into the game, first-pairing defenseman Mason Geertsen whiffed the puck inside the Giants blueline, right onto the stick of Rockets forward Cody Fowlie. In the blink of an eye, a pass went cross-crease to Tyrell Goulbourne, and BAM! Kelowna had an easy tap-in past a hapless Jared Rathjen in the Vancouver net. It’s a goal that would break a team’s back at the best of times, but in the opening two minutes of a home game? Killer.
Yes, this is a young team, but it’s the Western Hockey League. They’re all young teams.
The Vancouver Giants played an inspired second period against the Kelowna Rockets on Friday night, even managing to score twice on the power play, but it wasn’t enough. It’s becoming a familiar storyline this season, as the Giants were tied against the high-flying visitors after forty minutes, but surrendered two unanswered goals midway through the third for yet another loss. The Giants sit squarely in the Western Hockey League basement with 18 points in 35 games played.
Reports out of the Vancouver Giants camp today indicate that Liam Liston, a 19-year-old goaltender from St Albert, Alberta, has elected to retired from competitive hockey after a rough start to the 2012-13 season.
Liston was brought in from the Lethbridge Hurricanes during the off-season to be the number one goalie in Vancouver, but never found his footing. He gave up five goals on 17 shots in the season opener against the Victoria Royals, and put up similarly weak numbers in following games.
Details are few at this juncture, but in true Pucked in the Head fashion, there will be more after the jump anyway.