Vancouver bounces back from 7-4 road loss on Friday to the Kamloops Blazers
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Justin Lies and Ty Thorpe scored goals and Jesper Vikman made 23 shutout saves in the Vancouver Giants 2-0 win over the Kelowna Rockets on Saturday night at Langley Events Center.
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Vancouver bounced back from a 7-4 road loss to the Kamloops Blazers (6-1-0-0) on Friday.
The Giants (3-2-0-0) resume action next Friday, hosting the Rockets (2-2-0-0).
Lies, a 17-year-old winger, got his second of the season at 8:26 of the second period when he fired a wrist shot from the top of the slot to overtake Kelowna goalkeeper Colby Knight with the teams playing 4 against 4..
Thorpe, a 19-year-old center, added an insurance marker at 10:11 of the third, seizing a rebound for his third of the season. Thorpe had started the play by creating a rotation on the Kelowna blue line.
It was the second shutout in four games this season for Vikman, the Swede who is a prospect for the Las Vegas Golden Knights. He is 3-1-0-0, with 2.25 goals against average and a .910 save percentage, so far this season with Vancouver.
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AHL Henderson affiliate Silver Knights of the Golden Knights is in town this weekend to play the Abbotsford Canucks and there were Henderson staff at the LEC to observe Vikman, including assistant coach Jamie Heward, who held the same position. with the Giants before signing with the Silver Knights.
Vancouver trailed the Blazers 6-1 at the start of the third period on Friday, but came back to make it 6-4 before giving up an empty net score. Giants coach Michael Dyck called that effort a “great go on, ”to how Vancouver played the Rockets.
“We took the urgency and the confidence with which we played in the third … we felt like we played with nothing to lose and up to that point maybe we had played a little tight,” Dyck said. “We wanted to be relaxed and confident, but pay attention to detail.”
When asked if he sees his team playing better with their systems, Dyck said: “We’re still at a point where it’s 0-0 or even 1-0 where it doesn’t seem like it’s good enough for some of the guys. They want to get it right, but it’s walking the line and following what we know rather than overextending ourselves. When we overextend ourselves, we take longer turns and start flipping the record. So it is a process. It’s not going to happen overnight. “
Knight made 27 saves for Kelowna.
Reference-theprovince.com