The boys of the Vancouver Northwest Giants could spend Thanksgiving Monday relaxing thanks to back-to-back wins against the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds in Major Midget league play.
The Burnaby-Winter-Club-based Giants beat the Thunderbirds 5-4 on Saturday at the Abbotsford Recreation Centre (Oct. 11) and then 3-1 on Sunday (Oct. 12) at home at the Winter Club.
The wins wouldn’t be news for the unbeaten Giants (8-0) who are, after all, defending seven-time regular season champs, except for that five of their regular players were out of the lineup due to injuries.
Sunday’s game – the team’s first at home – was a good showing for the remaining Giants, but at times it was clear they were hurting.
The first period ended scoreless despite four power plays and the Giants outshooting the ‘Birds 12-3.
“(The Thunderbirds) kept us to the perimeter and they did a good job of getting in lanes and getting us to the outside and everything that we shot in the first period, though we took a number of shots, they were all from outside and we weren’t able to get into the goal-scoring area,” said Giants head coach Clint Thornton of the first period.
Despite the lopsided shots-on-goal tally, the Thunderbirds got on the board first with 13 minutes remaining in the second period.
The Giants’ Mateo Coltellaro answered shortly after making it 1-1.
The Giants held off a two-man advantage late in the second to keep the score tied into the third.
They kept control of the game in the third, finding the back of the net two more times.
Forward Wilson Northey scored to make it 2-1 and then got his second assist of the night, passing to teammate and Burnaby-boy Brady Chin, who got his first goal of the season for Northwest in his first game to make it 3-1 for the Giants, and game over.
To the Thunderbirds’ credit, they put pressure on Giants goalie David Tendeck, making most of their shots on goal in the last 15 minutes of the game (T’birds ended with 21 shots on goal to the Giants’ 35, on the game).
But Tendeck was on alert and the Giants, hobbled or not, pulled it together for the win.
On the game, Giants’ assists went to defencemen Callahan Brebner, Shane Kime and Carter Stephenson.
“That is the strength of our team, our depth. When some guys aren’t putting the puck in the net, we have a lot of options that can accomplish what we are trying to do,” said Thornton. “In the end we got the two points, and that’s what counts and we just have to keep improving on that.”
The Giants are off next weekend. They lace up their skates again on Oct. 25 against the Valley West Hawks at the Langley Events Centre.
Puck drops at 9:30 a.m.
