Giants keep their hotel reservations

It was win or go home time for the Vancouver Giants at the Memorial Cup, with a 0-2 record going into the Tuesday night game against Peterborough the Giants faced the possibility of being eliminated from the tournament by the time the night was done.

With that in their mind, they came out fast and hard to set the Petes back a bit as they once again took the lead for the first part of a hockey game. And true to form they once again found themselves in penalty trouble as the game went into the last twenty minutes, a chippy and rough affair which carried through past the final whistle of the game.

Vancouver found goals from the ever present Gilbert Brule, who netted two goals in the 3-2 victory, Brett Parker scored the first Giant goal in the first period. Jamie Tardif and Daniel Ryder got two back before the game came to an end.

The win forces both teams into a tie breaker showdown on Thursday night, the winner of which will move on to Friday night’s semi final, the loser finally able to check out of the their hotel rooms and make the long journey home.

Wednesday night it will be a replay of the QMJHL final as the host and league champion Wildcats take on their rivals the Quebec Remparts, a win by Moncton will send them on to Sunday’s Memorial Cup final with a perfect 3-0 record and put the Remparts into the semi final. Should Quebec take the win, they would have the bye to the final, while the Wildcats would appear in Friday’s semi final.

It will be a wild one in Moncton Wednesday night, these two teams play some pretty fast paced action and aren’t afraid to play the body as well. Add to the mix a hometown crowd that is not shy about showing its feelings for Patrick Roy and his Remparts and you have the ingredients of a pretty good CHL showdown.

While getting tickets might be a stretch for the Giants, they now can at least breathe a sigh of relief and realize that they’ll at least still be in the city for the game. And if they can replay their effort on Thursday, they may go even further along the Memorial trail.