Had the Vancouver Giants put forth a consistent effort for more than just the first half of the game, they would have taken home the second point, possibly even in regulation time. That was the assessment of head coach Michael Dyck, following a 3-2 overtime defeat at the hands of the Prince George Cougars.
The two B.C. Division rivals squared off on Friday night at Langley Events Centre in Western Hockey League action with Ethan Samson scoring off a rebound 1:58 into the three-on-three hockey to secure the visiting Cougars the second point.
“Really good start for us. Had we played that way for 60 minutes, it would be a different result. The back half of the game we beat ourselves,” Dyck said. “We went back to what we have seen previously: turning pucks over, not being physical, playing slow. And when we do that, we are not going to have success, pretty simple.”
“Am I surprised? I am more disappointed than anything. I am disappointed that we didn’t stick with what we know. It worked really well for us in the first half,” he addedd
Vancouver had built a 2-0 lead with goals from Justin Lies and Justin Sourdif, one in each of the two periods before Samson and Koehn Ziemmer scored two minutes apart in the latter half of the middle stanza. Ziemmer had a glorious chance to put the Cougars ahead in the third period but was denied by goaltender Jesper Vikman on a penalty shot attempt.
The season series now sits at four wins apiece for the B.C. Division rivals and this marked the first time the Cougars won at Langley Events Centre in four tries. The victory also pulls Prince George (14-17-1-1) to within two points of Vancouver (15-16-1-0).
The teams were coming off long layoffs with Prince George last playing January 1 and the Giants on January 2 after both teams had their games postponed last weekend.
“It was a messy hockey game. Both teams had a week off and you could see that as the game wore on. They did a far better job of keeping things simple. We complicated things at times,” Dyck said.
Game notes:
The final shots on goal were 39-38 in favour of the Giants with Vikman making 36 saves while his counterpart Tyler Brennan stopped 37 of the 39 shots he faced.
Zack Ostapchuk finished with a pair of assists for Vancouver.
There was just a single power-play opportunity in the game, which the Giants successfully killed off.
Up next:
The two teams are both right back at it on Saturday (January 15) back at Langley Events Centre with a 7:00pm puck drop.
Photos courtesy of Gary Ahuja Langley Events Centre
