Tri-city trial for Vancouver
American team set to prove tough test for Giants
We can sum up the storyline for tonight’s game between the Vancouver Giants and Tri-city Americans in two quick stats.
The Americans have 15 wins in their past 18 starts against the Giants, including punting them out of the last two playoffs.
Tri-city also comes into this evening having won 13 of 14 overall against the rest of the league.
Nobody treats the Giants quite like the Americans do and TriCity has maybe never been better as a whole, highlighted by sitting atop the national rankings two weeks running.
They are coming in off a loss, after falling 3-2 to the host Kamloops Blazers on Wednesday, but you can argue that only adds inspiration for them. This game tonight (7:30 p.m., Shaw TV/ AM 650) at the Pacific Coliseum is a big, bold checkpoint for the Giants’ season.
“I think they play a real quick game and we don’t always do a good job of sticking with what we do well,” said Giants coach Don Hay. “They expose us a little bit at that point.
“We have played well against them in spurts, but not long enough or good enough.”
The American (32-8-0-0) are an interesting study. Despite being on their way to a sixth straight 90-points-plus season, they’ve had just five players picked in the NHL draft since 2006. The Giants (26-14-1-1), by comparison, have had 13.
They’re led up front by overages Brendan Shinnimin and Adam Hughesman, who are average size but quick and smart and rarely taken off task. Their defence features the also savvy Zachary Yuen, 18, a Vancouver native who leads the WHL in plus-minus right now with a plus-32 after putting up a plus-41 last season.
And they’ve received outstanding goaltending from Ty Rimmer, 19, and rookie Eric Comrie, 16. As good as Vancouver netminder Adam Morrison, 20, has been, and you could argue that he’s neck-and-neck with sniper Brendan Gallagher, 19, for team MVP, the Giants are 7-7-1-0 in contests when they’ve been outshot, while the Americans are 7-2-0-0.
“They’re a team that’s all about finesse, transition and puck movement,” said Morrison, who took the loss in the clubs’ lone meeting this year, a 5-0 decision in Kennewick, Wash., on Oct. 15. “If you’re undisciplined in your own end, they feed of that. We’re going to have to play a smart game defensively and not get frustrated. We have to stay patient.”
Defenceman Brett Kulak, 18, added: “It’ll be almost like a playoff atmosphere type game.”
Kulak, who tops the Giants and is 12th in the league in plusminus at plus-22, was on Thursday named to the CHL Top Prospects Game, which will be played Feb. 1 at Prospera Place in Kelowna, as an injury replacement for Slater Koekkoek of the Peterborough Petes. Hay was also added to the coaching staff, and will work alongside Pat Quinn, one of the Giants’ minority owners.
Meanwhile, Kulak’s frequent defence partner with the Giants, David musil, didn’t practise thursday, but the team was calling it a maintenance day and expects him to be ready to play tonight.