Giants Head Into Playoff’s On A Winning Note

Say what you will fans in the lower mainland are mesmerized with the Vancouver Giants ever since they were relocated to the are first playing out of the Pacific Coliseum.

They finish off the 2024-25 regular season as they head into the playoffs with an impressive four-goal first period performance defeating the Rockets 5-1 in front of 4,615 on an afternoon where they gave out team awards.

The Giants finish their 2024-25 regular season with a 34-26-8-0 record and the 34 wins is the most dating back to the 2018-19 season, when they recorded 48 victories as they went to Game 7 of the WHL Championship final.

The Giants scored two quick goals right of the hop, getting the crowd into the game that saw Lipinski open the scoring 17 seconds in sending one top shelf on the short side for the early lead.

Goals came fast and furious in the game and with just under two minutes later Sparks got a pass from Blake Chorney (AP) at centre sending one past D-man Carter Kowalyk beating him sending one through the five hole beating  Rhett Stoesser.

Given that this was the last regular home season game the G-men weren’t finished managing to get another pair, first, Cameron Schmidt and Titlbach played give and go after Brett Olson forced a turnover in the Rocket zone.

With under a minute remaining in the first Roberts scored on the PP giving the Giants an impressive 4-0 lead sending the teams to the dressing room after 20 minutes.

The second saw neither team would score all thanks to the 13 save performance from Smith in the Vancouver net only to have Stancl break Smith’s shutout bid 5:03 into the third period with his 23rd of the season.

Halaburda replied finishing with his 29th of the year 3:05 later after moving traffic from around the crease making it 5-1, which  saw the G-men finish with a full sixty minute performance. 

Five different Giants found the back of the net on Sunday: Jaden Lipinski (17th), Tyus Sparks (11th), Adam Titlbach (27th), Colton Roberts (6th) and Ty Halaburda (29th). Brady Smith made 32 saves on 33 shots to secure his 14th win of the season.

Notes:

Vancouver went 6-2-0 in their final eight games of the regular season.

The sixth-seeded Giants will face off with the third-ranked Spokane Chiefs in the first round of the WHL playoffs, beginning on Friday at home at 7 p.m. 

Vancouver will start the series at the LEC as Spokane does not have building availability during the first weekend of the playoffs, which is due to the Spokane Arena hosting the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 rounds of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.