A Solid and Sloppy Opening Night

Giants Edge T-Birds

Vancouver 3 Seattle 2

Opening night on Renfrew.   I was pleased to see some solid forecheck from the team, but their sloppiness almost lost them the game. A great, simple and classy honour to anthem singer elite, Richard Loney, who passed last week. A throwback video between the Canucks and Jets, with Loney singing the anthem and an empty microphone stand lit up by a couple of spots in the arena. Classy and simple. Gave me a few chills. RIP Richard Loney. Ty Ronning had a two-goal night being in the right place at the right time. I also thought he was one the most consistent fore-checkers on the team tonight.   I don’t recall the G’s ever opening their season versus the Thunderbirds before, but I could be mistaken. The T-Birds are also missing four of their top players to NHL camps, so this was an opportunity for this young and potentially fragile Giants team to get a win, and gain a bit of confidence. Lee was average between the pipes, but in his defense he was left high and dry on both of the goals against. I liked the effort of new euro Radovan Bondra. A nice hungry goal to open the scoring and he had some jump. For such a big guy I would like to see him play with a bit more edge moving on in the season though.

Bondra opened the scoring for the G’s and is now the answer to the trivia question: “Who scored the Giants first goal in the 2015-2016 season?” Jackson Houck and Ryley McKinstry had the helpers. Ronning gave the boys a two-goal lead late in the second.   The G’s had a flat first half of the middle frame, but stepped it back up and pushed hard for the latter half of the period. Brennen Menell did most of the work, bringing the puck down the ice and deking through the defense, before putting the puck on net. Ronning was ready at the side of the net and put the loose puck behind Taz Burman, who was letting out some juicy rebounds in tonight’s game. Dawson Holt got the other assist. The Seattle squad tied it up in the third, coming back with two of their own. A careless delay of game penalty on the Thunderbirds, gave the Giants the chance to take back the lead.   Once again it was Ronning in the slot who found twine. It was Carter Popoff who did all the work to get the puck to an open Ronning.   Kirichenko had the second assist and Taylor Crunk created a nice screen at the front of the net.

Fight Night: Dakota Odgers versus Luke Osterman. A really good hard, middleweight tilt. There was some nice even toe-to-toe action, where both players got in some good shots. Odgers got the marginal take-down.

Team Notes: Tyler Benson and Thomas Foster are out for several games at least with injuries.

The Giants were out-shot 26-25. The boys went 1 for 4 on the PP, while the T-Birds were held to 0 for 3. A sloppy hockey game at times. The crowd was quiet while the Giants were leading, but upped their energy and support when the Seattle team tied the game. Good to get their first win out the way. I suspect that wins will be rarer than the fans and the players would like this season, but if they keep up that effort – their mistakes will be forgiven.   Menell is morphing into a decent special teams quarterback. I’m not sure where the team goes from here, but they need to keep up the pressure and make sure they bring the forecheck for the whole game and not sit back and try to protect leads like they did in the third period.

The Giants take on the usually deadly Kelowna Rockets at the Coliseum, before going on a long Eastern road swing, which could have the team struggling when they return home. The puck drops at the Coliseum at 6:00pm PDT.

Three Stars:

• 1) Ty Ronning
• 2) Taylor Crunk
• 3) Keegan Kolesar

Dondo’s Hardhat: Goes to Dakota Odgers. A nice fight and hungry at both ends of the ice. Always finishes his checks and hits hard and clean.