Close Year With A Win

The Vancouver posted a victory to finish the 2012 as they doubled the PG Cougars 8-4 Sunday as Trevor Cheek recorded a hat trick in the Giants win and Tyler Fuhr managed 22 saves for his 3rd win of the season.

The Giants improved their record to 10-27-0-0 and move to within 9 points of the Cougars in the Western Conference standings moving to second half of the schedule.

The game was wide open from the beginning with the Giants opening the scoring at 3:06 on a goal by Wes Vannieuwenhuizen giving them a 1-0 lead.

The Cougars responded quickly tying the game as Colin Jacobs beat Fuhr 43 seconds later. Vancouver restored the lead as Tyler Morrison got his first of the season midway through the first, only to allow the Cougars to even the game on a goal by Chase Witala three minutes later.

Vancouver again scored to take the lead 3-2 for third time as Kale Kessy beat Mac Engel of the Cougars a minute after the Cougars had tied the game at two. Shots in the opening period were 13-6 for Vancouver.

The Cougars came back to even the game at 3-3 on the PP as Chase Witala scored his second 20 seconds in.

That was as close as they came to the Giants as Vancouver regained the lead for the fourth time as Taylor Vickerman gave them a 4-3 lead at 8:01.

They added to the lead as Trevor Cheek added his second two minutes later putting them up 5-3.

The Giants added another doubling the Cougars 6-3 on a goal by Travis McEvoy.

The cougars closed the gap before the period ended on a goal by Colin Jacobs (second of the game) with 50 seconds left making it 6-4. Shots were 15-11 in a wide open period of hockey.

Vancouver added a couple more as Trevor Cheek completed his hat trick a short 1:25 in making it a 7-4 Giants lead.

They added one more as Mason Geersten completed the Vancouver scoring with under two minutes remaining on the PP extending the lead to 8-4.

Shots in the game were 43-26 for the Giants as goalkeeper Tyler Fuhr was solid stopping 22 of the 26 shots he faced. Mac Engel finished with 35 saves on the night in the Cougars loss.

The Giants next home game is January 2 when they face the Blazers to start the second half of the season.