Calgary Hitmen 3 Vancouver Giants 4 (SO)

Only one week after putting up two of their worst performances in recent memory the Vancouver Giants defeated the #1-ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League, the Calgary Hitmen, 4-3 in a shootout.

The two teams played a scoreless first period with the Giants outshooting the Hitmen 11-6. Garet Hunt opened the scoring six minutes into the second period with his first goal of the season. Craig Cunningham and Mario Bliznak drew the assists.

As time wound down in the period the Giants managed to score two more goals in 33 seconds and Jon Blum and rookie Evander Kane helped the Giants to a 3-0 lead. But the Hitmen would not be silenced and Kyle Bortis cut the lead to 3-1 with a goal at 18:22.

The third period gave the fans at the Pacific Coliseum reason to believe the Hitmen worthy of their ranking. Outshooting the G-men 16-4 the Hitmen were in control for nearly the entire period thanks in part to four consecutive powerplays. Carson McMillan scored at 5:47 of the third and with the Giants clinging to a one goal lead he scored again at 17:55 to tie the game at 3-3.

The overtime session produced no results for either team and the game headed to a shootout. James Wright, Michal Repik and Spencer Machacek were all unable to solve Hitmen goalie Dan Spence while Tyson Sexsmith turned away Kyle Bortis, T.J. Galiardi and Brandon Kozun to send the shootout to the sudden death round. That's where Evander Kane emerged as the hero beating Spence to give the Giants the lead. At the other end of the rink Sexsmith turned away Ryan White and the Giants were victorious.

GiantsBeat.com Player of the Game: Garet Hunt. With his first goal of the season and an assist on the second goal of the night Hunt found himself a fight short of a Gordie Howe hat trick. Still Hunt found himself playing his usual in-your-face physical style and earned himself a charging and roughing minor in the first period. With four points in his last 3 games Hunt is now on pace to shatter his career high of 11 points set last year.