Giants End Losing Skid; Defeat Blazers 7-2

Cain Franson scored twice as the Vancouver Giants ended a five-game losing skid with a 7-2 victory over the Kamloops Blazers at the Pacific Coliseum on Sunday. The G-Men also got goals from Tyler Morrison, Mason Geertsen, Jackson Houck, Joel Hamilton and Dominik Volek while Jared Rathjen made 19 saves in a winning effort between the pipes.

Morrison found the net first to put Vancouver on the board in the opening frame when he beat Kamloops goalie Cole Kehler between the legs with a slap shot from the right point on the power play. Geertsen tallied his  third of the year on a rebound after the puck was shot off the post by Joel Hamilton and bounced back into the slot. Houck found the net as well with a power play goal, ending a 10 game goalless drought with a nice move to the forehand from close range to give the home team a three-goal lead after one period.

Franson made it 4-0 in the middle frame, picking up the pieces in front after a point shot from Geertsen and firing the puck past Kehler into the goal. Hamilton added to the lead when he picked up his third point of the evening, scoring on a wrister from the right wing face-off circle on a man advantage. Former Giant Matt Bellerive put the visitors on the board with just over five minutes to go in the stanza, netting his 12th of the season to pull the Blazers to within four goals.

The goals kept coming for the Vancouver club in the third. Volek picked up his 20th of the year on a pretty rush from his own blue line that eventually saw him fire a wrister just underneath the cross-bar. Franson rippled the mesh for his second of the evening and 24th of the season, knocking a centring feed from Hamilton into the Kamloops cage to make it 7-1. Bellerive found the net again for the Blazers, wiring a wrist shot past Rathjen from the high slot, but that was as close as the Kamloops squad would get.

Vancouver went 3-for-4 on the White Spot power play while the Blazers were 0-for-3. The Giants out shot the Blazers 51-21 in the hockey game.

The Giants will now head out on the road for four consecutive games starting on Wednesday in Lethbridge against the Hurricanes. Catch all the action on TEAM 1410 and teamradio.ca. The Pre-Game Show begins at 5:30pm, followed by the opening face-off at 6 o'clock.

Game Summary

3 Stars:
1. Cain Franson - Vancouver
2. Joel Hamilton - Vancouver
3. Jackson Houck - Vancouver