Gallagher gets ball rolling for Giants
Team Canada standout helps Vancouver grab two points from Oil Kings
A night after Canadian national junior team standout Mark Stone made his Western Hockey League return to Rexall Place with the Brandon Wheat Kings, it was Brendan Gallagher’s turn on Saturday night, with the scrappy Vancouver Giants captain leading his team to a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oil Kings.
Like Stone, Gallagher played a key role for Team Canada during their run to a bronze medal earlier this month at the world junior tournament, and didn’t disappoint in his return to Edmonton.
“I grew up in Edmonton and I saw a lot of games here. It’s special for me every time I come here and I like to play well in front of my family,” Gallagher said.
“I just get really excited to come here, there’s a lot of history in this building and you just want to perform, especially when you’re playing a good hockey team.
“Coming into this building we knew it was going to be tough, we were able to get a lead and held onto it at the end, so it was a good effort from our team tonight.”
Along with Gallagher, it was a world junior homecoming of sorts for both Giants and Canada head coach Don Hay, as well as Edmonton Oilers draft pick and Czech Republic world junior defender David Musil.
Both, however, on this night were overshadowed by Gallagher.
The newly minted Vancouver captain, who took on the ‘C’ about two weeks ago when James Henry was dealt to the Moose Jaw Warriors, looked right at home Saturday going up against world junior roommate and Oil Kings captain Mark Pysyk.
“A lot of memories come back in your mind and playing against Pysyk tonight is something we talked about a lot,” Gallagher said.
Gallagher got the Giants on the board first at the 6:03 mark of the first when he slipped a rebound past Oil Kings goalie Laurent Brossoit to give Vancouver the early 1-0 lead.
For the second straight night, Edmonton was outplayed in the first, but this time wasn’t lucky enough to head to the locker-room with the lead, being outshot by a 12-5 margin. Kristians Pelss’s shot off the crossbar was the Oil Kings only genuine scoring chance in the period.
Despite an improved effort in the second period in which Edmonton narrowly outshot the Giants 10-8, testing Vancouver netminder Adam Morrison more frequently than in the first, the Oil Kings still couldn’t break through offensively.
The lone goal of the second came 6:02 into the period when Musil set up Cain Franson, who made no mistake on a partial breakaway, slipping the puck past Brossoit to give Vancouver a 2-0 cushion.
Vancouver’s Anthony Ast gave his team a 3-0 lead early in the third, before the Oil Kings’ Curtis Lazar and Pelss scored to make things interesting, but it wasn’t enough in a period in which Edmonton made do without blue-liner Griffin Reinhart.
Reinhart, who was playing in only his third game since returning from an undisclosed upper-body injury suffered Jan. 8, left the game in the second period and didn’t return. The measure just a precaution, with Reinhart set to attend the Canadian Hockey League Top Prospects Game this week in Kelowna.
“(I) just didn’t want to risk anything happening further and didn’t want to affect my chances in the prospects game,” Reinhart said.
That’s two games that we’ve played against them now we’ve been
outworked…
Oil Kings coach Derek Laxdal
“I’m fine right now, I probably could’ve gone back in, there’s just no point in risking it when I’ve got a big game coming up.”
While the Oil Kings and Giants, jockey for playoff position in the middle of the Western Conference standings, have only faced each other 10 times all-time, the latest game was just another example of Vancouver’s dominance.
Saturday night’s result marked the Oil Kings’ ninth loss in 10 games alltime against the Giants, and second of the season. The two teams third and final regular-season meeting will be Feb. 17 in Vancouver.
“You can’t be happy when you get outworked in your own building,” said Oil Kings head coach Derek Laxdal. “That’s two games that we’ve played against them now we’ve been outworked, and we need to learn a valuable lesson from that.
“Tonight was another classic example of will over skill, and will beat skill every time if you don’t put the work in.”
Despite the setback, Edmonton remains first in the Eastern Conference, four points up on the second place Warriors, who were 5-2 winners over Saskatoon Saturday.
Next up for the Oil Kings is a Friday home game against the Red Deer Rebels.