Mazden Leslie scored the overtime winner and Brett Mirwald made 31 saves as Vancouver Giants clipped the Seattle Thunderbirds 2-1 in overtime on Friday night, Dec. 15, at the accesso Showare Center.
With the win, the Giants’ record improves to 12-17-2-0 this season. Seattle falls to 12-13-2-0.
Giants rookie Cameron Schmidt had the other goal for Vancouver, his ninth of the season. Scoring the lone tally for Seattle was Antonio Martorana.
Goaltending was solid on both sides, with Mirwald picking up his 10th win of the season, while rookie Spencer Michnik stopped 36 of 38 for Seattle.
Giants Associate Coach Adam Maglio noted the team has had some suspensions and some players still out with injuries, so different names had opportunities to play in the lineup.
“I thought everyone kind of stepped up and did their part,” Maglio said.
“It was good to see different guys step up in different roles and I thought we competed hard for the full 60.”
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After a scoreless first period, just 2:18 into the second period, the Thunderbirds got on the board when 16-year-old Antonio Mortorana deflected a point shot from Braeden Wynne.
Less than five minutes later, however, the Giants got the equalizer off the stick of their own 16-year-old, Cameron Schmidt, to make it a 1-1 game.
Neither team would break the tie in the third period, so the game went to 3-on-3 overtime.
In the extra frame, Leslie stole the puck at the offensive blue line and entered on a 2-on-0 with Lipinski. Two passes later and the puck was in the back of the net on Leslie’s fourth goal of the season.
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Vancouver’s Mirwald and Schmidt were first and third stars of the game.
Next, Giants are home to the Prince George Cougars tonight, Saturday night, at the Langley Events Centre at 7 p.m. Sunday afternoon, they welcome the Thunderbirds to the LEC at 4 p.m. to wrap up their first half schedule.
