“Hooky Day” At Coliseum

The Vancouver Giants won their fourth game in their last five outings 4-3 that saw the game go to overtime against the Moose Jaw Warriors.

The game was played on what the Giants called “Hooky Day” before 10,161 fans, which were mostly school age kids that saw them having a day off school.

A Flash Mob performance by 5,000 participating kids promoting acceptance in the annual Anti-Bullying Pink shirt day that saw a strong message  on the video screen by Premier Christy Clark addressing the crowd.

The game was very entertaining as both teams played a fast paced and hard hitting game with several quality shots at each end of the ice.

Goalkeeper Payton Lee was between the pipes for the Giants, while Brody Willms was in net for the Warriors.

The first was a scoreless period and the shots through one were 9-7 for Moose Jaw.

The Warriors opened the scoring in the second 59 seconds in as Jake Rodewald put a shot past Lee giving the Warriors an early 1-0 lead.

Vancouver got the equalizer from Thomas Foster while on the power play with 5:38 remaining in the second to even the game at one.

Mason Geertsen rewarded the fans with the go ahead goal in the final minute of the second on a blast from the point beating Willms seeing the Giants take a 2-1 lead after two.

Alec Baer almost gave the Giants a 3-1 lead in the third period intercepting a pass at the blue line going in on Willms only to be denied.

From there the Warriors pressed and were rewarded on a goal by Jensen Spencer 6 minutes in to even the game at two.

The teams battled hard to break the 2-2 deadlock exchanging several scoring chances as Lee and Willms were stellar between the pipes.

The game went to overtime and shots were 29-25 in the Giants favour through 60 minutes.

The game appeared as though to be headed to a shootout, but Giants winger Mason Geertsen fired home the game winner with 39 seconds left giving the Giants a 3-2 win.

Final shot tally was 32-25 for Vancouver that had Payton Lee finish with 23 saves for the win, while the Okanagan Hockey Academy grad Brody Willms made 29 saves in a tough loss.

He was rewarded for his hard work throughout the game and named the games first star with his stellar performance.

Vancouver are back in action Saturday night to face the Kamloops Blazers in a division rivalry.

Game time is 7:00pm at the Coliseum.