Repeating what they did Saturday night on home ice, the Vancouver Giants took down the Prince George Cougars for a second time in just a few days.
Tuesday night in Prince George the G-Men skated to a 4-2 victory over the Prince George, the same score by which they defeated the Cougars during their last matchup on the weekend.
Davis Koch, Owen Hardy, Justin Sourdif, and Bowen Byram all scored for the Giants, while Trent Miner turned aside 20 Cougars shots to secure his 18th victory.
Josh Curtis and Vladislav Mikhalchuk responded with goals for the Cougars, a team that has now dropped 10 straight.
The win improved the Giants (34-13-2-1) record to 6-1 on the season against Prince George (16-30-3-2) and moved them 18 points up on Victoria for first in the B.C. division and five points back of Everett for first in the Western Conference.
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BOX SCORE
1st Period:
VAN – Davis Koch (21) opened the scoring for the G-Men off a two-on-one rush with Tristen Nielsen at 16:14. Trent Miner earned the second assist.
Shots: 9-9
2nd Period:
VAN - Owen Hardy (9) extended the Giants lead to 2-0 at 5:22 of the second period when he crashed the net and knocked an Alex Kannok Leipert rebound past a sprawled Taylor Gauthier.
PG – Cougars captain Josh Curtis (9) responded at 13:41 with a goal off a two-on-one rush with Tyson Upper.
VAN – 57 seconds later Justin Sourdif (14) scored his second goal in as many games when he took a Milos Roman feed from behind the net and outwaited Gauthier to move the Giants back ahead by two goals.
VAN – 36 seconds later Bowen Byram (20) scored off the rush off a slick right-wing feed from captain Jared Dmytriw. Owen Hardy earned the second assist on Byram’s marker.
Shots: 13-8 Vancouver
3rd Period:
PG – Vladislav Mikhalchuk (19) moved the Cougars back within two at 16:53 when he one-timed home an Ethan Browne back-door feed that came from above the right-wing point.
Shots: 9-5 Vancouver
The Giants saddle up again Wednesday night against the Cougars, in Prince George, and then again in Langley on Sunday. In between, they have a game in Kamloops Friday night.
BY THE NUMBERS
• Final score: Vancouver 4 – Prince George 2
• Final shots: 31-22 Vancouver
• Trent Miner: 20/22 saves for Vancouver (18-4-1-0)
• Taylor Gauthier: 27/31 saves for Prince George (12-21-2-1)
• Vancouver: 0/2 on the power play
• Prince George: 1/3 on the power play
• 3 Stars: 1) Vancouver’s Owen Hardy with one goal and one assist, 2) Vancouver’s Jared Dmytriw with one assist, 3) Vancouver’s Alex Kannok Leipert, also with one assist.
• The Giants are now 6-1 on the season against Prince George and are 3-0 against them on the road. It was also the second straight 4-2 victory for the Giants against Prince George.
• Trent Miner improved his season record to 4-0 against the Prince George Cougars with a 1.75 goals-against-average and a .935 save percentage.
• The Giants are 21-1 this season when leading going into the third period.
• The Giants improved their record against the B.C. Division to 18-3-1-1 and their road record to 14-8-1-0.
RECENT COVERAGE: Giants took down the Cougars 4-2 at home in Langley
