Thunderbirds Fight Off the Giants 6-4

October 12, 2012

VANCOUVER, BC – It was a shootout that didn’t go to a shootout. Seattle jumped out to a 4-0 lead and held off the Giants comeback attempt twice to preserve a 6-4 victory in front of 6,839 fans at the Pacific Coliseum Friday night.

For the 7th time in 8 games, the Giants surrendered the first goal of the game. Seth Swenson caught them on a bad change, held and shot on a 2 on 1 off the right wing to open the scoring at 8:19. After a flurry of pressure by the Giants in the offensive zone didn’t result in the equalizer they were looking for, the Thunderbirds wrapped up the period with a pair of goals in the final 90 seconds; Brendan Rouse banged home a rebound off the rush at 18:34 to make it 2-0, and then Tyler Alos was able to deke out Fuhr in tight to increase the lead to 3-0 with just 1.3 seconds left on the clock.

Just less than 2 minutes into the 2nd period, Seattle increased the lead to 4-0 off a turnover in the Giants zone. The Giants didn’t give up and were able to muster up what looked like a promising comeback when Marek Tvrdon buried his first of the season off a great set-up from Cheek, and then Cain Franson made an individual play 4 minutes later to cut the deficit to 4-2 at 8:33 of the second.

However the Thunderbirds were able to restore their 4 goal lead off a pair of power play goals from Brendan Rouse (2nd of the game), which chased Tyler Fuhr from the crease (5 goals on 14 shots) and then Luke Lockhart, who beat Liam Liston on an open net tap-in.

However, the Giants were able to restore a little bit of life in the last minute, when David Musil slapped one past Brandon Glover with 35 seconds left to cut the deficit to 6-3 headed into the 3rd.

The Giants took advantage of their only power play of the game at 10:40 of the 3rd, when Cain Franson banged home his 2nd of the game on a rebound to get Vancouver back to within 2, but that’s as close as the home team would come.

The Giants outshot the Thunderbirds 32-21 on the night, including 10-4 in the 3rd, but Brandon Glover came up big when he needed to be, finishing the night with 28 saves.