It started out with a faceoff in the Vancouver zone with 0:08 to go. Read more.
There are another two months left in Vancouver Giants’ regular season, but we might just have the team’s goal of the year already, thanks to Adam Titlbach’s version of a basketball buzzer-beater.
Titlbach rifled one over goaltender Carson Bjarnson’s glove on a breakaway with 0.5 seconds showing on the clock in the first period of Vancouver’s 3-1 win over the Brandon Wheat Kings on Sunday at the Langley Events Centre.
It started out with a faceoff in the Vancouver zone with 0:08 to go. Brandon’s Jaxon Jacobson won it back to winger Jordan Gavin, who fired a shot at the net. The puck hit Wheat Kings winger Caleb Hadland in front, and Vancouver defenceman Ryan Lin scooped it up and chipped it on the backhand toward Titlbach, who in the middle of the ice at the top of the Vancouver zone.
The clock on the WHL web broadcast showed 0:04 left when Titlbach first started pulling away from the Brandon defencemen. Giants play-by-play man Nathan Kanter belted out, “He’s got two seconds,” just as Titlbach crossed the Wheat Kings blue line.
Titlbach fired off a wrister at the top of the two face-off circles and cleanly beat Bjarnson, who was at least a couple of steps outside the blue ice of his crease.
“I didn’t think he’d get it off, but he did,” Kanter proclaimed just after the puck went in.
Titlbach said afterwards that he could hear his teammates from bench yelling at him about two seconds being left.
“I was just thinking, ‘Put the puck as fast as I can at the net … just a hard shot to the net,’” Titlbach, 18, explained. “The goalie was really far out from the net and I chose the shot and I’m glad it worked.”
Titlbach added another breakaway goal in the third period, but this time went with a deke, beating Bjarnson with a move to the backhand.
“The second one was different, because I had time. That’s why I didn’t shoot,” Titlbach said.
The two-goal game pushed Titlbach to 17 tallies on the season, in 44 games played. The product of Litvinov, Czechia had nine goals in 66 games last season as a rookie.
SCHMIDT CONTINUES TO PILE UP GOALS
Winger Cameron Schmidt’s 32nd goal of the season in his 38th game was one of a precious few bright spots for the Giants on Tuesday night in a 7-1 loss on the road to the Seattle Thunderbirds. Vancouver is back in action Friday, when they visit the Kelowna Rockets, and Schmidt woke up Wednesday second in the WHL in goals, trailing the 33 put up by Spokane Chiefs’ 20-year-old forward Shea Van Olm.
Schmidt, 18, a Prince George product who is getting buzz as a possible first-round pick in this summer’s NHL Draft, had 31 goals in 59 games last season as a rookie. He is the first Giant to score 30 in back-to-back seasons since Brendan Gallagher went for 40 in three straight years from 2009-12.
Vancouver (22-17-5-0), who are sixth in the Western Conference, have 24 games remaining.
Schmidt has always said that he is never aiming at a particular goal total in a season. For what it’s worth for those of us tracking Schmidt’s tallies, winger Evander Kane scored 48 times in 61 games with Vancouver in his draft season in 2008-09.
Kane set a Giants’ record that summer for earliest draft selection when he went No. 4 overall to the Atlanta Thrashers. Defenceman Bowen Byram equalled that mark in 2019 when he was picked in that same position by the Colorado Avalanche.
“I just go out there and try to do the best I can every game. Numbers don’t mean much if you’re not winning games. That’s the main goal,” Schmidt said.
SCHMIDT ALSO PILES UP DIFFERING OPINIONS ON HIS DRAFT STOCK
McKenzie’s TSN cohort Craig Button had Schmidt ranked No. 7 in the rankings he put out Jan. 14. Sportsnet’s Sam Cosentino slotted Schmidt at No. 26 in his December rankings.
Elite Prospects has Schmidt at No. 10.
Brandon centre Roger McQueen is the top WHL player on McKenzie’s list, coming in at No. 7. The 6-foot-5, 193 pounder from Saskatoon hasn’t played since Oct. 11, though, due to a lower body injury. Brandon is listing him as out week-to-week.
Prince George Cougars goalie Joshua Ravensbergen is the lone netminder in McKenzie’s top 32, coming at No. 28. The 6-foot-5, 192-pound southpaw from North Vancouver is 20-8-3-1, with 3.09 goals against average and a .901 save percentage.
Other notable names include Calgary Hitmen forward Ben Kindel at No. 25. He’s the son of former Vancouver Whitecaps/Breaker soccer standoutsSteve Kindel and Sara Maglio.
The 5-foot-10, 175-pound Kindel, who is from Coquitlam, had 24 goals and 68 points in 41 games going into a Wednesday match-up for the Hitmen with the Moose Jaw Warriors.