Giants Draw Record Crowd

Hot and humid outside and warm and muggy inside and the Giants are hoping the fan base can help them pull out a win keeping them alive in their dream of reaching the 2019 Mastercard Memorial Cup.

The G-men came out with more of a sense of urgency to the start managing to get their first shot on goal 10 second in and from there it was press and continue to press the Raiders.

No question they were up for this game as  at the mid-part of the period they were out-shooting the Raiders by a 7-3 margin with no sign of letting up.

To the surprise of no one it’s a sellout crowd on hand with the majority being Giant supporters and sparsely through the crowd you could see a raiders jersey.

It would be fair to mention that the game plan for the Raiders would be simply to throw pucks at the net and jump on the rebound, but the Giants plan seemed to be play disciplined, aggressive and go to the net.

It was Brayden Watts who got the Giants on the board at the 7:42 mark with Neilson and Joseph getting the helpers.

The Giants started where they finished after one getting under the skin of the Raiders going to the PP with Leason getting tagged for Roughing giving the Giants several chances trying to capitalize, but to no avail.

No sooner did Leason return former Royals player Dante Hannoun gave the Raiders a 2-1 lead at 2:45, but it was short lived as Giants Byram tied the game at two at 3:35 bringing the crowd to their feet.

Controlling the play seemed to be the norm for the Giants and as if getting the game even wasn’t enough they took a 3-2 lead as Koch notched his third of the playoffs at 9:24 with helpers going to Byram and Bafaro.

As if three wasn’t enough they managed to take a 4-2 with Plouffe getting his sixth of the playoffs with Holt and Dmytriw getting assists.

We know that the Raiders are strong and that was shown when Gregor got his 11th of the playoffs simply jamming it in on the right side post narrowing the Giants lead to 4-3 at the 15:54 mark of period two.

The Raiders managed to get more shots on net and narrow the shot total after two keeping the G-men leading by a 25-24 tally.

During the 2nd intermission the talk with the various scouts in attendance and there were several from various NHL clubs was the key for the Giants to pull  out a “W” would be to continue to play disciplined and force the play.

The Raiders came out strong going to the net forcing the rebound to the opposite side of the net in hopes of getting on a loose puck trying to get that ever dreaded fourth goal tying the game.

The third started with both teams sending waves of players attacking the net, each having several chances only to be turned aside by Raiders Ian Scott and Giants David Tendeck.

The play that could have changed the game was a partial break that saw Giants dylan Plouffe making a diving stickcheck to knock the puck of the Raiders player, which many say was the play of the game!!

To the surprise of no one the Giants called a T/O as the play was swinging in favor for the Raiders as well as give them a rest on the icing call with the faceoff in their zone which was to the left of Tendeck.

The Raiders appeared as tho they were ready to cal a T/O, but it was only a “tactic” so as to rest his players, even after the Referee went to the players bench.

The Raiders pressed, but the Giants keep them off the scoreboard and live to play another day that sees the teams travel on a charter flight with the cost covered by the league.

Tune in and listen to the call of the game from Dan and Bill.

Three Stars:

1st Bowen Byram

2nd Dylan Plouffe

3rd Noah Gregor