Hood leads Giants past Wheat Kings

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/01/2025 (242 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Adam Titlbach scored twice and goalie Burke Hood made 31 saves against his hometown team as the Vancouver Giants topped the Brandon Wheat Kings 3-1 in Western Hockey League action at Langley Events Centre on Sunday afternoon.

Tyler Thorpe also scored for Vancouver (22-16-5-0) in front of a crowd of 4,222 as they improved to 6-0-0-1 in their last seven games on home ice

Brandon (20-15-3-2) received its goal from Marcus Nguyen.

Wheat Kings head coach and general manager Marty Murray said his team didn’t play poorly but simply didn’t do enough to win.

“It’s frustrating,” Murray said. “I think we played pretty hard and didn’t score. That’s probably the biggest thing we can take away from the game, is we didn’t score and we held them to 20 shots and they scored on theirs. We had a lot of looks but we didn’t score on. That was the difference in the game.”

On the first power play of the game, with Brandon goalie Carson Bjarnason lying by the far post, Ty Halaburda was left all alone and scored on Vancouver’s fourth shot in a minute. The referee on the ice signalled a goal but it was determined Bjarnason had been interfered with, the goal was disallowed and the Giants also took a penalty on the play.

Brandon was unable to capitalize on their good fortune, however.

With the teams now playing four on four, Thorpe scored 13 seconds later when he broke down the side and fired a shot past Bjarnason.

Hood made his best save a minute later when he denied Wheat Kings forward Nick Johnson on an odd-man rush.

The Giants made it 2-0 with just 0.5 seconds remaining on a great play. Brandon won the draw in the Vancouver end with eight seconds remaining and got a shot at the net but the puck was blocked. Giants defenceman Ryan Lin lifted it high into the air in the neutral zone and Titlbach raced after it, picked it up and at the end of a long breakaway, beat Bjarnason cleanly.

Brandon had back-to-back-to-back power plays to start the second period, and capitalized on the second one when defenceman Luke Shipley fed Nguyen with an east-west pass across the zone and the overage forward leaned into a one-timer.

The Wheat Kings had tremendous pressure at times in the third period and carried the territorial advantage but couldn’t beat Hood.

“We have to get to the scoring areas,” Murray said. “That’s something we preach on and show on video constantly. It’s frustrating when you don’t get there and there are a bunch of pucks rebounds lying around in the first period and the second. If you want to score, look at the NHL highlights every night and guys who score goals score them from there. It’s not rocket science to figure that out.”

The Giants finally got the insurance marker they needed with 4:32 remaining when Titlbach intercepted a pass in the Vancouver zone, chugged up the ice and beat Bjarnason on the backhand with a shot into the top of the net.

“The faceoff at the end of one with eight seconds left, I’m not sure what we drew up,” Murray said. “That was a new one for us, to give up a breakaway goal with one second on the clock wasn’t ideal certainly, and we were pressing in the third and threw a no-look pass and that was another breakaway and the difference in the game.”

Bjarnason made 17 saves for the Wheat Kings.

Brandon went 1-for-4 on the power play, with Vancouver unsuccessful in two chances.

During the trip so far, Brandon has one victory in four outings after falling 4-2 to the Calgary Hitmen last Sunday, beating the Victoria Royals 5-4 on Wednesday and falling 5-3 to the league-leading Everett Silvertips on Friday.

“It’s real frustrating, to be honest with you,” Murray said. “We should have a better record but we don’t, we’re 1-3. We have to find it from within and play the same way but our execution has to be better. We have to get to the scoring areas, and in the next 48 hours, we’ll focus on our game in Kelowna.”

ICINGS: Brandon skated without injured forwards Roger McQueen and Easton Odut, plus D Merrek Arpin, who went home to attend to a family emergency … Hood was named first star, similar to Vancouver’s win in Brandon a year ago when Brett Mirwald was named first star after making 48 saves in a 4-0 Giants victory … Nick Johnson led the Wheat Kings with eight shots on net … The game took two hours, 20 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Brandon won 29-21 … Brandon’s road trip continues with games against the Kelowna Rockets on Tuesday at 9:05 p.m., the Kamloops Blazers on Wednesday at 9 p.m. and the Prince George Cougars on Friday at 9 p.m.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson