Hunch pays off for Hay in Giants’ win
Midget callup shines in net against Everett
If two heads are indeed better than one, Vancouver Giants coach Don Hay had both his own head and his bobblehead Friday night to help him make decisions.
His first, and biggest, was to throw 15- year- old midget callup goalie Payton Lee at the Everett Silvertips in effort to end a three- game WHL losing streak. The two- headed coach came up a winner as the Giants edged the ’ Tips 4- 3 before a crowd of 6,878 Pacific Coliseum.
“I just went with a hunch,” Hay explained when asked about starting the grass- green, braces- wearing Grade 10 student. “I thought he would do well and he did well. I wanted a change in goal and he was the guy who was here and he was going in. It was great to see him get his first win.”
Lee, who was called up earlier this week with the injury to No. 1 netminder Adam Morrison, was steady throughout and made 19 saves for the victory. He received the nod over 16- year- old Jackson Whistle, Morrison’s regular backup, after Whistle had surrendered 14 goals in less than eight periods.
Hay made the decision to start Lee on Thursday and phoned the Cranbrook native later that night.
“I was pretty excited, obviously, when he gave me the call,” said Lee, who normally plays for the Pursuit of Excellent program in Kelowna. “It was my first WHL game so it was pretty special. When the game, started, it was pretty overwhelming at first but I got used to it pretty quickly.”
The only goals to beat Lee came on Everett power plays – a 5- on- 3 and 5- on- 4 in the first period, and a 6- on- 4 in the third. The Giants otherwise threw a blanket over Everett’s offence, which entered the game third- worst in the league.
The Giants started well and led 2- 0 just past the midpoint of the opening period on goals by Riley Kieser, his third in five games since joining Vancouver, and defenceman Brett Kulak, whose power- play point shot found net with Kieser screening ‘ Tips goalie Kent Simpson.
The lead quickly evaporated, however, when veteran Giant blueliners Neil Manning and Wes Vannieuwenhuizen took penalties 79 seconds apart and Everett scored on both, Cody Fowlie converting the 5- on- 3 and Kohl Bauml the 5- on- 4.
Vancouver regained its twogoal margin after 40 minutes as Anthony Ast, on a deflection, and Kulak, on a delayed penalty, scored in the latter half of the middle period. Fowlie rounded out the scoring with 1: 47 to go in third but that’s as close as the last- overall Silvertips would come.
The Giants, who were without injured captain Brendan Gallagher and shutdown defenceman David Musil ( in addition to Morrison), are back in action tonight in Kelowna.
G- NOTES: Fifth- year defenceman Neil Manning appeared in his 285th regularseason game for the Giants and is now just 10 behind Craig Cunningham’s franchise record of 295.