Friday night in Prince Albert, SK the Vancouver Giants earned a hard-fought 5-4 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders in Game 1 of the Rogers WHL Championship Series. Dawson Holt paced the Giants with two goals while Jared Dmytriw added a goal and two assists and Bowen Byram assisted on four of the Giants five goals. David Tendeck stopped 25 of the Raiders 29 shots in the Giants net to secure his ninth victory of the playoffs. Dante Hannoun responded with a goal and an assist for the Raiders who got 21 saves from Ian Scott. The Giants went two-for-four on the power play while the Raiders went one-for-three.
1st Period:
VAN – Dylan Plouffe opened the scoring for Vancouver at 4:20 of the first period off a blast from the right-wing point on a five-on-three power play. Bowen Byram and Milos Roman assisted on Plouffe’s fifth goal of the playoffs.
VAN – A minute and 46 seconds later Dawson Holt (6) increased Vancouver’s lead to 2-0 when he tucked home a shot from beside the net along the right-wing side. Jared Dmytriw’s one-timer from the left-wing went wide, but bounced off the boards behind the net right to Holt who made no mistake.
Shots: 13-10 Vancouver
2nd Period:
PA – 3:30 into the middle frame, Brett Leason made it a 2-1 game when his shot from the left-wing circle snuck through a few sets of legs and past David Tendeck for his sixth goal of the playoffs.
VAN – Back came the Giants at 5:13 when Jared Dmytriw raced across the Raiders blueline and wired a shot past the blocker of Ian Scott and home for his eighth goal of the playoffs. Bowen Byram and Alex Kannok Leipert drew the helpers.
PA – The Raiders answered 64 seconds later when Noah Gregor snuck past the Giants defense, took a feed from Parker Kelly and snapped a shot past David Tendeck for his eighth of the post-season.
PA – Dante Hannoun tied the score at 3-3 at 16:45 when he managed to knock a puck out of the air and past David Tendeck from the slot area. Parker Kelly drew the lone assist on Hannoun’s 10th goal of the playoffs.
VAN – With just 31 seconds remaining in the period the Giants took their lead back when Yannik Valenti snuck into the slot and one-timed home a feed from Davis Koch past Ian Scott’s glove for his second goal of the playoffs. Bowen Byram drew the second assist on the play to notch his third assist of the night.
VAN – Then with just 17 seconds remaining in the period, Dawson Holt was able to stuff his second of the game and seventh of the playoffs through Ian Scott from a tough angle along the right wing from beside the Raider goal. Bowen Byram’s fourth assist of the night on that play.
Shots: 11-7 Prince Albert
3rd Period:
PA – At 2:50 of the final period the Raiders moved back within one when defenceman Jeremy Masella kept the puck in at the left point, raced wide to the right wing, cut in front of the net and stuffed home his first of the playoffs on a strong individual effort. That’s as close as the Raiders would come though as the Giants managed to maintain their one-goal lead for the remainder of the game.
Shots: 9-5 Vancouver
Final Score: Vancouver 5 – Prince Albert 4
Final Shots: 29-26 Prince Albert
David Tendeck: 25/29 saves for Vancouver (9-1-1)
Ian Scott: 21/26 saves for Prince Albert (12-4-1)
Vancouver: 2/4 on the Power Play
Prince Albert: 1/3 on the Power Play
Next Game: Tonight at 6 PM PT from the Art Hauser Centre.
GIANTS NOTES:
– The Giants have now won Game 1 in all four of their playoff series in 2019.
– The Giants improved their road record to 6-1-1 in the playoffs.
– Over his past three games, Bowen Byram has scored two goals while adding six assists for eight points.
– Dawson Holt now leads all Giants with three game winning goals during the 2019 playoffs.
– The Giants power play has scored in 15 of the 16 games they’ve played so far in the playoffs.
