Giants dream of a winner wonderland
Vancouver looks to extend hot streak beyond holiday break in back-to-back games with Everett
The Vancouver Giants haven’t played a game since Dec. 17. They haven’t lost one since Nov. 25.
The Giants will try to continue the momentum they started before the WHL’s holiday break come Wednesday, as they carry a six-game winning streak into a meeting with the Everett Silvertips at the Langley Events Centre (7 p.m., TSN 1040).
Both teams will be missing key players who have gone to the world junior tournament in Buffalo. Giants first-line centre Milos Roman is part of the Slovak squad there, while Everett goalie Carter Hart is between the pipes for the Canadians.
Vancouver (18-13-2-2) is at Everett (21-13-1-1) on Friday.
The Silvertips were hot going into the break as well, winners in 11 of their last 12. They sit atop the Western Conference standings, one point ahead of the Portland Winterhawks (21-11-0-1), who do have three games in hand.
This will be the third game without Roman for Vancouver. He’s expected to miss at least seven games. Owen Hardy, a natural left winger, has been centring Ty Ronning and Brad Morrison on Vancouver’s top unit in Roman’s absence.
Roman, 18, who’s a 2018 NHL draft-eligible and will play in the CHL Top Prospects Game in Guelph Jan. 25, is the WHL’s leading rookie scorer, with 29 points, including eight goals, in 33 games. He was the sixth overall pick in last year’s CHL Import Draft.
Meanwhile, it took some time for Everett to find a goaltender to pair with Hart, 19. They’ve used five netminders besides him.
They’ve settled of late on Dustin Wolf, 16, a Los Angeles Jr. Kings product the Silvertips picked in the fifth round of the 2016 WHL bantam draft. He brings a 5-2-0-0 record, to go with a 2.00 goals against and a .942 save percentage, into Wednesday.
The other goalies with the Silvertips outside of Hart and Wolf have a 3-81-0 record.
Vancouver hasn’t won this many games in a row since they took seven straight heading into the 2014-15 holiday break. That coincided with the beginning of Claude Noel’s tenure as coach.
That run gave those Giants a 16-180-0 record. They went 11-23-2-2 the remainder of the season, though, to finish 27-41-2-2.
This season marks the first time since 2013-14 that Vancouver has had a winning record at the break. They were 17-13-5-2 at the cut-off then. That was the last season Vancouver made the playoffs, their 32-29-7-4 regular season record good enough for the seventh of eight available playoff posts. They were eliminated in four straight games by the Winterhawks that opening round.
Vancouver has missed the post-season three seasons running. They finished last in the 10-team Western Conference a campaign ago, thanks to a 20-46-3-3 record. They didn’t record their 18th victory last season until Feb. 8.
It will be interesting to see the lineup coach Jason McKee goes with against Everett. Right winger Brendan Semchuk, 18, was a healthy scratch the final two games before the break. He was a first-round choice, 10th overall, in the 2014 WHL bantam draft. He has eight goals on the campaign, which ties him with Roman for sixth most on the team.
He had been playing on Vancouver’s second line, teaming with Tyler Benson to flank James Malm, but McKee has been using recent trade pickup Jared Dmytriw in that spot and utilizing Semchuk farther down the lineup.