Vancouver NW Giants 4 - St. John's Privateers 3
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. – Jackson Houck scored the game-tying goal early in the third period and helped set up Sam Reinhart for the game-winner six minutes later as the Vancouver North West Giants survived a scare on Wednesday night, beating the St. John's Privateers 4-3.
The win leaves the Giants (3-0) as the tournament's lone unbeaten team, while the Privateers (1-2) saw their semifinal chances take a hit despite holding leads of 2-1 and 3-2 through the first 40 minutes. Coming off its first win of the tournament 24 hours earlier, St. John's came out with jump against the Pacific Region champions, but fell victim to the vaunted Vancouver power play, which converted for the eighth time in 13 chances when Alex Kerfoot snapped a shot past Matt Jenkins.
It took just 46 seconds for the Privateers to reply, however, as Marcus Power drove to the Vancouver net and snuck a shot through the pads of Giants netminder Scott Legault to ignite the hometown crowd at Mile One Centre. Fans were barely back in their seats at the start of the second period when Justin O'Reilly went crossbar and in on Legault to give St. John's its first lead of the game at 2-1.
Penalties came back to haunt the Privateers, though, with the Giants pulling even on another man advantage; Joel Issigonis tipped home a Bo Pellah shot just shy of the midway point of the middle frame.
St. John's took its third and final lead at 14:12 of the second when Danny Wicks buried a neat little feed from Power, who finished with a goal and two assists.
Once again the Giants turned to their power play, although it was a fortuitous bounce off the corner boards that allowed Kerfoot and Reinhart to set up Houck for his fourth goal of the tournament.
The Privateers had a glorious opportunity to retake the lead when Power was awarded a penalty shot shortly after Houck's goal, but the St. John's captain had his forehand deke stymied by the pad of Legault, who kept the game tied.
That set up the Kerfoot-to-Reinhart combination that has been so reliable for the Giants all week. Kerfoot found Reinhart in front, and the son of former NHLer Paul Reinhart buried it behind Jenkins to give Vancouver its first lead since 1-0.
Reinhart's goal was the only one not scored with the man advantage by Vancouver, although it came just 20 seconds after a St. John's penalty had ended, with Vancouver's top power play unit still on the ice. Vancouver tries to run its record to 4-0 on Thursday after when it takes on the Lions du Lac St-Louis (3:30 p.m. NT), while the Privateers will look to keep their semifinal hopes alive against the Winnipeg Thrashers (7 p.m. NT).
Halifax Titans 3 - Lions du Lac St-Louis 9
Winnipeg Thrashers 2 - London Jr. Knights 2