Giants Dominant vs Everett, But Come Out Empty-Handed

VANCOUVER, BC – Despite heavily outshooting the Silvertips by a total of 37-21 on Friday night, the Vancouver Giants were again playing catch-up all game long and again came up short in a 5-3 loss, in front of just under 6,000 fans at the Pacific Coliseum.

Reid Petryk led the way with a pair of goals for the Tips while Austin Lotz was terrific in goal turning aside 34 of 37 shots faced.

Everett scored early goals in the first 2 minutes of all three periods and broke open the game with two goals in 22 seconds early in the 2nd period to take a 3-1 lead. Trevor Cheek scored in his first game with the Giants to cut the deficit to 3-2.

But Everett again scored early in the 3rd and fought off the comeback. Micro Mueller, Manraj Hayer and Joshua Winquist added singles for the Silvertips in helping them pick up their first win of the season. Meanwhile the 2nd overall pick in the NHL draft, Ryan Murray, finished with 1 assist and a team high +3.

Liam Liston struggled in net for Vancouver, surrendering 4 goals on 13 shots before being replaced by backup Tyler Fuhr early in the 3rd. In his regular season debut for the Giants, Fuhr made 7 saves on 8 shots to finish the game.

In addition to Cheek, the Giants got goals from John Neibrandt and Tristan Sieben (both with their first of the year and first with the Giants) in the losing cause. Jackson Houck picked up 2 assists for the 3rd straight game.

Vancouver did win the special teams battle this time, finishing 1 for 3 on the power play while Everett failed to score on their lone power play.

Tonight's Dickie's Hardest Working Player of the Game was Anthony Ast

The loss drops the Giants to 0-3 on the new season while Everett improves to 1-2-0-1. Overtime/shootout included, Vancouver hast lost 7 straight dating back to the pre-season. They are the only team in the Western Conference without a point and one of only two in the league, including the 0-3 Red Deer Rebels.

The Vancouver Giants will now get a rare Saturday off and practice at the PNE Agrodome before returning to the Pacific Coliseum Sunday afternoon at 4pm to take on the team that knocked them out of last year’s playoffs, the Spokane Chiefs.