Giants left off top 10
Blazers ranked third
Every week, the Canadian Hockey League releases its top 10 teams across the three major junior circuits and, this week again, there are four from the WHL.
The Kamloops Blazers sit third- ranked, followed by the Tri- City Americans fourth, Portland Winterhawks sixth and Edmonton Oil Kings seventh. The Vancouver Giants? Not even an honourable mention.
Now that may have something to do with two losses in eight days to the lowly Everett Silvertips. But how about this: since Dec. 27, the Giants have beaten Kamloops twice, Portland twice, Edmonton twice and Tri- City once. Overall, they are 9- 5- 0- 0 against the four best teams in their league.
Giants head coach Don Hay was hardly outraged Thursday when asked if his skaters deserved at least an honourable mention based on results against the aforementioned big four. In fact, he found the suggestion amusing.
“No, I don’t think we deserve any kind of mention,” Hay replied with a chuckle. “For the rankings, the consistency of the teams is what’s most important and all those teams have been more consistent than us throughout the season. So they deserve it.”
Luckily for the Giants, they will have an opportunity to rectify the situation this weekend when they meet the Blazers in a homeandaway series. They begin tonight at home — 7: 30 p. m., Pacific Coliseum — and finish Saturday away in Kamloops.
The teams have already clashed four times this season and each has won twice. They’ll also meet in another home- andaway March 9- 10 to complete their eight- game season series. The Blazers leads the Giants by 14 points in the standings and have all but locked up the B. C. Division title, which will be their first in 10 years.
“You always want to see how you match up and where you fit in against the top teams and this weekend is definitely like that,” said Hay. “There is a chance we might meet Kamloops in the playoffs, but we still have these four games against them before that. They could really tell us where we’re going to stand and where we’re going to finish as far as playoff positioning.”
With the division title no longer realistic, the Giants’ mission now is to finish ahead of the Spokane Chiefs in the overall Western Conference standings and obtain home- ice in the first round. Vancouver leads Spokane by three points, but has played two more games.
“At the start of the year, winning the division is one of the goals you set,” said Giants captain Brendan Gallagher. “You always want to be the best team in your division but, obviously, Kamloops has had a really good year. It’s still possible to catch them, but it would be really tough. We would need to play really well and they would need to struggle, which probably won’t happen.
“So if you look at the standings, it appears as if we’re going to play Spokane in the first round. We understand that we’re competing for playoff positioning now and we really want home ice. Every point is very crucial. We don’t want any to slip away.”
G- NOTES: Gallagher needs three points to pass Adam Courchaine for the Giants’ alltime scoring lead. Courchaine collected 273 points as a Giant from 2002- 05. ... Giants left winger Marek Tvrdon, with 59 points, trails the Blazers’ Tim Bozon by two points for the WHL rookie scoring lead