Giants aim to crack Blazers’ WHL-best penalty kill

NEXT GAME

Tonight

Vancouver Giants vs. Kamloops Blazers

7 p.m., Sandman Centre Radio: SNET 650 AM The Vancouver Giants’ power play needs a reboot and their latest attempt to do that will come against a penalty-killing unit that has had opponents’ man-advantages freezing up.

Vancouver (6-5-0-0) visits the Kamloops Blazers (6-4-0-0) at the Sandman Centre tonight. The Blazers, who have killed 14 of their past 15 penalties, possess the WHL’s top-ranked penalty-killing mark this season, working away at an 87.8 per cent (five goals allowed, 41 chances) efficiency rating.

The Giants are back in B.C. after a six-game Prairie trip, and their power play was 2-for-22 on that sojourn. Vancouver is No. 11 in the 22-team circuit with the man advantage, connecting at 19.5 per cent (8-for-41).

Vancouver won the Western Conference regular-season pennant in 2018-19 and its power play wound up fourth in the league, thanks to a 24.6 per cent (61-for248) success rate. In the playoffs, the Giants went all the way to the WHL championship series and their power play went on a 31.3 per cent (21-for-67) romp in those four post-season series. Power play point men Bowen Byram and Dylan Plouffe are among the returnees from the group that performed so well last season.

Friday is the beginning of a three-in-three weekend for the Giants. They’re home to the Swift Current Broncos (2-5-1-1) and their No. 11-ranked penalty kill (78.8 per cent on seven goals, 33 opportunities) on Saturday (7 p.m., Sportsnet 650) at the Langley Events Centre (LEC). And they host the Victoria Royals (2-4-1-0) and their No. 15-ranked penalty kill (76.7 per cent on seven goals, 30 opportunities) on Sunday (4 p.m., Sportsnet 650) at the LEC. Both of those games will mark Vancouver’s first matchups at the LEC since the team’s 4-0 win over the Kelowna Rockets on Sept. 29.

“I think we have a good setup,” Giants winger Justin Sourdif said of his team’s power play unit, “but I think we need to focus on maybe getting a couple of more pucks to the net and baring down in front of the net.”

The Blazers had the WHL’s No. 18-ranked penalty kill last season, via a 76.5 per cent (68 goals, 289 opportunities) success rate, and finished third in the B.C. Division at 28-32-6-2, well behind the firstplace Giants and their 48-15-3-2 performance. Kamloops lost in six games in the first round of the playoffs to the Royals.

The Blazers and coach Serge Lajoie “mutually parted ways” in the summer and Kamloops hired Shaun Clouston, who was fired from the Medicine Hat Tigers earlier in the off-season.

Besides their penalty-kill proficiency, the Blazers are also putting up numbers offensively. They have the top scorer in the league in centre Connor Zary, 18, who’s getting some buzz as a possible first-round selection in this summer’s NHL draft as part of his 16 points, including five goals, in 10 games so far.