Giants Crushed in Tri-City

Finding bad luck at every corner, the Giants had a forgetful Sunday in Kennewick, Washington. Americans’ Captain Justin Feser scored a hat-trick while Brian Williams and Marcus Messier added a pair of goals each as the Giants got humbled 9-1 at the tail end of a 5 game, 9 day road trip.

Vancouver struggled to find offense all night, getting outshot 38-15 in total. Payton Lee got the start but was pulled at 3:07 of the 2nd period after surrendering 4 goals on 18 shots. Tyler Fuhr played the rest of the way and surrendered 5 goals on 20 shots.

The Americans started their backup, Brenden Fiebelkorn, for the first time this season (in place of Eric Comrie), and he picked up his first WHL victory in the process.

Justin Feser opened the scoring halfway through the first period and Marcus Messier added another to give Tri-City a 2-0 lead through 20 minutes, despite a late post and crossbar a minute apart from Marek Tvrdon and Trevor Cheek.

The second period is where the game really got out of hand, as the Ams potted 2 early ones from Justin Feser and Beau McCue to make it 4-0 and chase Payton Lee.

The bleeding continued for Vancouver when the Americans scored on their first two shots on Fuhr, 11 seconds apart, as Brian Williams and Michal Plutnar extended the lead to 6-0. The Williams goal was on the power play, and ended Vancouver’s streak of 24 straight successful kills.

Marcus Messier would add another one off a Vancouver skate to make it 7-0. Trevor Cheek had a penalty shot opportunity, but he found the crossbar for the second time in the game, and it remained 7-0 Americans going into the third.

Justin Feser wrapped up his hat-trick in the first two minutes of the 3rd to make it 8-0, before Trevor Cheek got a little redemption, scoring on a breakaway for the Giants lone highlight of the night. Brian Williams would notch his second of the night on a power play at 13:31, and that was it for the scoring, as the Americans took it 9-1.

The Giants didn’t have a single power play in this game, while the Americans had six and scored twice.

The loss drops Vancouver to 5-12-0-0 on the season, while the Americans won their 3rd straight game this weekend to improve to 12-6-1-1, pole-vaulting them into first in the US Division and second overall in the Western Conference.

The Giants will now get some rest with a day off on Monday and then practice Tuesday-Thursday 2-3:30pm in Ladner before returning to the Pacific Coliseum to host the Portland Winterhawks Friday night at 7:30pm (TEAM 1040).