Vancouver Giants on hold about injured goalie Jesper Vikman’s return

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Swedish starter left Friday’s Langley Events Center match-up against Kamloops late in the first period with an apparent lower body injury

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Mar 07, 2022 • 12 minutes ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation

Giants goalie Jesper Vikman, an NHL Vegas Golden Knights prospect, was making his 18th straight start for Vancouver on Friday against Kamloops when he was taken out of the game with an apparent hip or a hamstring injury.
Giants goalie Jesper Vikman, an NHL Vegas Golden Knights prospect, was making his 18th straight start for Vancouver on Friday against Kamloops when he was taken out of the game with an apparent hip or a hamstring injury. Photo by Rob Wilton

Vancouver Giants general manager Barclay Parneta doesn’t have a firm timeline on a return to action for starting goaltender Jesper Vikman.

Parneta said he was still awaiting reports from team medical staff on Vikman, who left Friday’s Langley Events Center match-up against the Kamloops Blazers with 2:05 to go in the first period with what looked like a hip or a hamstring injury.

Will Gurski took over in goal that night in what became a 4-3 overtime loss. Gurski went the distance in a 5-3 road defeat on Saturday against the Kelowna Rockets and a 5-4 setback to the Rockets at the LEC on Sunday. Underage call-up Matthew Hutchison, a third-round Vancouver pick in the 2021 WHL Draft in December, backed up Gurski in the Kelowna games.

The 19-year-old Vikman, a 2020 fifth-round NHL Draft selection of the Vegas Golden Knights, was making his 18th straight start for Vancouver on Friday. Parneta had pegged the Swede, who’s in his first season with the Giants, as the team’s most valuable player to date

The Giants (20-28-3-0), who have dropped four straight, are in sixth place in the WHL’s Western Conference, two points up on the Prince George Cougars (19-31-2-1) with two games in hand . The Giants have 17 games left in the regular season.

The top eight teams in the conference make the playoffs.

The Giants resume action Wednesday, opening up a three-game US road swing with a visit to the Spokane Chiefs (17-31-4-1).

Vikman, who turns 20 next week, is 17-15-2-0, with a 3.05 goals against average and a .903 save percentage. Gurski, who’s 19, is 3-11-1-0, with a 3.78 goals against average and .880 save percentage.

NEXT GAME

wednesday

Vancouver Giants at Spokane Chiefs

7:05 pm, Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. Web: watch.chl.ca

Parneta was also awaiting word from medical staff on center Ty Halaburda (upper body injury), who was injured in Friday’s game and didn’t dress in either weekend game.

Halaburda, 16, has five goals and 16 points in 45 games. There have been stretches where he’s seen top-six ice time for Vancouver in this, his rookie season.

Vancouver did get winger Fabian Lysell, 19, back Sunday after serving a one-game suspension from the league office on Saturday for a slew-footing double minor he received in Friday’s loss for taking down Blazers winger Luke Toporowski.

And defenseman Alex Cotton received a three-game suspension from the league office for the checking to the head major he landed for a hit on Kamloops forward Luke Stankoven, meaning that Cotton will miss Vancouver’s visit to Spokane but will be eligible to go back in the lineup for Friday’s trip to the Tri-City Americans (15-33-5-0).

Lysell (Boston Bruins 2021 first rounder) and Cotton (Detroit Red Wings 2020 fifth rounder) are two of Vancouver’s four NHL Draft picks, along with Vikman and center Zack Ostapchuk (Ottawa Senators 2021 second rounder)

Vancouver wraps up the three-game jaunt Saturday, traveling to the Portland Winterhawks (36-13-3-2).

Vancouver’s next eight games and 12 of their final 17 are versus US teams. The WHL opted against having interlocking games between the Western and Eastern Conference this season, and that meant a team like the Giants playing extra games against their BC rivals and US squads.

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