Sunday, May 21, 2006

Two games done, Two games down.

The Vancouver Giants find themselves in a rather dire situation, in a tournament where wins count for everything, they’ve played two games already and have nothing to show for them.

For the second day in a row the Giants let a lead get away from them and then found a third period collapse to be their undoing. Sunday the Giants found themselves watching a remarkable comeback by the Quebec Remparts; who down 2-0 midway throught the second period roared back to take the victory 6-3.

Vancouver controlled the play for the first thirty minutes of the play but then seemed to be unable to control the duo of Alexander Radulov and Jordan LaVallee who came alive in the third period to put away the Giants in what became a chippy and hard hitting final thrity minutes of hockey.

Radulov who lead the CHL in scoring this year had been frustrated in the Remparts debut game against Peterborough on Friday, but found his form return Sunday against the Giants. His goal seemed to energize the Quebec bench as they quickly capitalized on their opportunities. Vancouver once again found themselves in penalty trouble and that sapped a lot of their energy and denied them a chance to mount any kind of counter attack against the Remparts.

Vancouver’s loss also nullified another strong game from Gilbert Brule who collected points on all three of Vancouver’s goals, Brule who sets the pace for the Giants when he’s on the ice picked up a goal and two assists in the losing cause.

It was a rough schedule to face to begin with, as the Giants faced back to back games in less than 24 hours one of the quirks of the round robin scheduling to begin the tournament. They however, did not do themselves any favours by two consecutive third period collapses, games that they seemed to have under control, suddenly got away from them and that’s something that they can’t bring back.

With the loss the Giants are now in a must win situation for Tuesday’s game against the Peterborough Petes, should they lose then they will effectively be eliminated from the final rounds of the Memorial Cup.

Monday’s action features Peterborough and the host Moncton Wildcats, both of whom have won their openers and now stand poised to take control of the drive towards Friday’s semi final or Sunday’s Championship game.

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