Giants feel they have something to prove
Hot Vancouver team looking forward to nationally televised battle with No. 1 ranked Raiders
The Vancouver Giants will battle the Prince Albert Raiders, the country’s No. 1 ranked junior hockey team, tonight on national TV.
Veteran Giants defenceman Dylan Plouffe swears his teammates aren’t the least bit freaked out by the situation. He says that the magnitude of the 7:30 p.m. game at the Langley Events Centre, broadcast coast-to-coast via Sportsnet, has yet to register with the Giants, who are winners of their six straight games.
You can argue that’s a positive statement about where the team’s mindset is these days. This contender status is a new thing for these Giants. There are still several players on the squad who were regulars on a poor Vancouver team that finished with just 20 wins and 34 points out of a playoff spot two seasons ago.
“That’s the last thing on our minds. We haven’t even talked about it as a team,” Plouffe said of the national TV broadcast. “I think the biggest thing for us is playing the Prince Albert Raiders, showing up for our fans, and just proving to a lot of people that we’re a good team.
“It’s us looking forward to playoffs and what a playoff game will be like.”
Prince Albert (40-5-0-2) has already won more games this year than they’ve won in any single season since 1998-99, when they went 45-22-5.
That’s back when there were no overtimes or shootouts. Games were allowed to end in ties. It sounds crazy, but it really happened. Google it!
These Raiders are also 12 points up on the next best team in the circuit, the Everett Silvertips (33-12-1-1). They’re 20 points ahead of the fourthplace Giants (29-12-2-0). And they have the top seven players in plus-minus rankings and eight of the top nine.
The Raiders’ penalty kill has almost outscored opponents’ power plays (18 short-handed goals for Prince Albert, 25 power-play goals against).
By all accounts, they have three lines that can score and a physical defence. They also have Ian Scott, who was one of the Team Canada goalies at the recent world juniors.
“The neutral zone is a big part of their game. I think it’s one of the biggest. If they control neutral zone, they’re more than likely to win the game,” said Vancouver forward Jadon Joseph, who came to the Giants in a Jan. 4 trade but has played Prince Albert five times this season in previous stops with the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Regina Pats.
“I think they also look for a chase game, a back and forth. As long as you stay away from that, you’ll be fine.
“We are very structured. We stay to what we’re told. When things open up in the offensive zone, we take advantage.”
Prince Albert coach Marc Habscheid and forward Brett Leason, along with Vancouver defenceman Bowen Byram, are expected to fly back to Vancouver on Thursday morning from Red Deer, where they were taking part in the CHL Top Prospects Game.
The Giants, with coach Michael Dyck and assistant Jamie Heward, have been known to match lines and defensive pairings at home, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see Byram on the ice regularly against Leason.
Another thing to watch for is who Vancouver starts in goal. Dyck has been alternating between David Tendeck and Trent Miner much of the season. Both have been dealing with the flu, so the starter could come down to a health issue.
Miner, 17, in his second year with the Giants, is 13-31-0, with a 1.91 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage. Tendeck, 19, who is in his third year with the Giants, is 16-9-1-0, with a 2.51 goals-against and a .907 save percentage.
Scott is 28-4-0-2, with a 1.79 goals-against and a .936 save percentage, so it’s easy to guess that he’ll get the start for Prince Albert, who have won five of their past six, falling 4-3 to Kelowna in a shootout last Saturday.