Articles, Hockey

Vancouver Giants woes continue, but the Xmas sweaters are awesome

Irish (and Aussie) eyes were smiling — and wearing glorious Christmas sweaters — at the Pacific Coliseum on Friday night despite the Vancouver Giants dropping a 3-1 decision to the Swift Current Broncos. From left to right are Brian, Breanna, Claire, Emilia and Donal. (In case you’re wondering, the boys are from Ireland and the gals are from Australia. No, we don’t know if that’s legal. Extra props to Donal for that serious ginger beard.) Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.

The Vancouver Giants suffered their eighth loss in nine games on Friday night, a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the visiting Swift Current Broncos. Despite some early chances for the home side, the Broncos were up 2-0 before the first period was half over.

Goal number one came on a bad bounce off of captain Wes Vannieuwenhuizen’s skate past Payton Lee. It was reminiscent of an early goal the Giants scored in Victoria just a few nights ago on the way to a 7-2 romp over the Royals.

Sadly for the 8,115 fans who stuffed the Pacific Coliseum on Friday, the Giants weren’t able to make it two in a row. In fact, the G-men’s only win since Remembrance Day came on the road, something that makes it hard to take full advantage of the NHL’s ridiculous, ongoing lockout. Thankfully, the crowd on Friday included not only the best-dressed fivesome in Pacific Coliseum history, which you see above, but also busloads of energetic students from a handful of schools across the Lower Mainland.

More after the jump.

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Blake Orban and the Vancouver Giants have tightened up defensively, but troubles scoring have led to eight losses in nine games and the WHL’s worst record this season. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.

The last time the NHL decided to take a year off to focus on remedial labour relations coursework, the Vancouver Giants put together a phenomenal season. With Rogers Arena dark, they won a boatload of games, played entertaining hockey every single night, and packed the Coliseum on a regular basis. A year later they’d win the Memorial Cup.

This year, however, Vancouver is treating coach Don Hay to his first experience at the bottom of the league standings. Efforts like Friday’s have been commonplace.

Rookie goaltender Eetu Laurikainen made 28 saves on 29 stops for the win, including a magnificent diving stick save on Cain Franson that preserved the two-goal lead going into the second intermission. It was by far the best chance of the night for the Giants, and came just moments after the back-breaking 3-1 goal, a short-handed penalty-shot by the Bronco captain and leading scorer, Adam Lowry. For his part, Payton Lee was once again solid in the Giants net in the loss, stopping 22 of 25.

Swift Current Broncos captain Adam Lowry extends his team lead in scoring with this penalty shot goal against Vancouver Giants goaltender Payton Lee. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.

On a good note for us here at Pucked in the Head, Vancouver Sun scribe Gord Kurenoff has outed himself as a fan of our work, and has included us in the links on his blogroll. We hope it doesn’t prove harmful to either his NFL picks or his future career options. And hey, if there’s a way to get us some print at some point, surely having @ohgord in our corner can’t hurt, can it? CAN IT?