Giants give up two goals three seconds apart
The Vancouver Giants ended up in the Western Hockey League record books for the wrong reasons Friday.
The Giants dropped a 6-4 decision to the Kelowna Rockets at the Langley Events Centre, giving up a pair of late third-period goals after they had rallied from allowing two goals three seconds apart in the middle frame.
It’s OK. You read that right. Three seconds apart.
With the game tied 2-2, Kelowna’s Tomas Soustal came off the right sideboards, deked past Vancouver defenceman Matt Barberis and snuck a shot past Giants netminder Ryan Kubic with Kelowna short-handed at 14:15 of the second period.
Soustal won the ensuing faceoff at centre, and Braydyn Chizen’s attempted clearing from his own blue-line to kill time turned into a goal when Kubic botched it. Time of the goal was 14:18.
The crowd of 4,286, who had been getting into the game with some spirited play by the Giants in the second period, went silent.
That was the fifth time two goals had been scored three seconds apart in the WHL’s recorded history. The record for quickest two markers is two seconds, set by the Calgary Hitmen on Oct. 3, 1998, when Pavel Brendl scored at 19:40 and Brad Moran tallied at 19:42 in a 6-4 win over Red Deer. Moran’s goal was into an empty net.
Vancouver tied Friday’s game 4-4 on goals by Alec Baer and Johnny Wesley, but Kelowna grabbed the winner when Kole Lind batted in his own rebound at 16:50 of the third.
Vancouver’s Radovan Bondra received a high-sticking minor with 1:53 to go, but the Giants still threatened, as Kelowna netminder Michael Herringer got his blocker on a Jack Flaman try on a 2-on-1 rush with 1:26 remaining. Nick Merkley tallied into an empty net to finish things off for Kelowna.
Merkley had two goals and one assist for the Rockets (10-8-0-0). Soustal and Calvin Thurkauf each had a goal and two assists.
Baer supplied two goals and one assist for Vancouver (7-11-0-0). They were the first two markers of the season for the fourth-year Giant, who tallied 19 times in 201516. Darian Skeoch had the other Giants goal.
Kubic made 31 saves. Herringer stopped 30 shots.
The Rockets were missing centre Dillon Dube (knee), the Calgary Flames’ 2016 second-round draft pick who’s yet to play a game this season. Vancouver’s Tyler Popowich and Kelowna’s Nolan Foote were both missing, playing with Team Black at the Under-17 world challenge in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Team Black edged Russia 3-2 in a shootout Friday to advance to today’s gold-medal game against the Swedes.
The Giants return to action tonight, when they face the visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes. Lethbridge features former Vancouver defenceman Brennan Menell, the team’s top-scoring rearguard last season who demanded a trade in training camp this year.
Prince Albert Raiders general manager Curtis Hunt was at the LEC Friday. Such visits often precede a trade.