VIDEO: Vees hand Giants first loss of season

VIDEO: Vees hand Giants first loss of season

Published 5:00 pm Monday, October 5, 2026

A visit to the Okanagan Friday was painful for the Vancouver Giants, who suffered a 3-2 overtime loss to the Penticton Vees – translating to their first defeat of the season.

But returning home to Langley Event Centre on Saturday proved even more devastating, as they lost their first game of the season on home ice, 5-1, to the Swift Current Broncos.

At the South Okanagan Events Centre on Friday, Oct. 2, Vancouver entered the final frame up 2-1 thanks to goals from Jakob Oreskovic (1st) and Mathis Preston (2nd), but Graham Jones tied the game 2-2 early in the third and then scored the game-winner less than a minute into the 3-on-3 overtime.

Preston gets us the lead https://t.co/zZTQvP41ig

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) October 3, 2026

Oreskovic didn’t need long to open the scoring, cleaning up the garbage in front of the net at the 6:58 mark of the first period.

Tyler Deakos tied the game late in the first period 1-1 off a backdoor pass from Gavin Katz.

Midway through the second period, the Giants scored off the rush once more, executing on a 3-on-2 when Crosby Mateychuk got the puck to Blake Chorney in the left circle, who threw the biscuit across the crease to Preston, who made no mistake for his second goal of the early season.

The Vees pushed back in the third period and were rewarded with a goal from Jones at the 5:24 mark.

In overtime, the new ‘no-return’ rule came into play, as the officials blew the play dead after Preston was forced back out to centre. Off the ensuing defensive zone faceoff, Jones took the puck to the net himself and slipped it threw the five-hole of Oliver Bryks for the game-winning-goal.

Bryks stopped 18 of 21 shots in the Giants crease, but it wasn’t enough.

Then back home for the Oktoberfest game at LEC the next night, the Giants’ only goal of the game came at the 7:09 mark of the first period.

The Giants held the lead for all of 92 seconds, before Swift Current scored their first of five unanswered goals.

This time out goaltender Bryks stopped 23 of 27 shots in the Giants crease. But again, it wasn’t enough.

Tobias Tomik finished a short handed 2-on-0 with Blake Chorney to open the scoring in that first period.

The Broncos quickly tied the game up, with a tic-tac-toe goal from Hudson Kibblewhite less than two minutes later. Hyde Davidson and Sawyer Dingman received assists on the play.

Kayd Ruedig one-timed in his third of the season to give the Broncos a 2-1 lead late in the first period.

Midway through the second period, Zach Pantelakis connected with Parker Rondeau on 2-on-1 to make it 3-1 for the visitors.

In the third period, Carter Moen picked up his second point of the night, scoring to increase the Broncos lead to 4-1. Kibblewhite also recorded his second point of the night with an assist.

In the dying minutes of the game, Rondeau netted home an empty netter.

Reflecting back on the weekend, Giants head coach and general manager Michael Dyck shared his disappointment.

“I just think that we still have to figure out exactly how we have to play as a team in order to be successful on a consistent basis… when we got on pucks and we were hard on pucks and we got them back, we got some momentum back, but we had nobody at the net. We were putting a lot of pucks on net from the perimeter and we’re not getting second chances,” he said.

Next up, the Giants host the Brandon Wheat Kings on Tuesday night, Oct. 6, at LEC. Puck drops at 7 p.m.

That’s followed by back-to-back games against the Thunderbirds on Friday and Saturday evenings, Oct. 9 and 10. The first of the matches is south of the border, the second is back in Langley on Saturday.

1-0 Giants 😄 https://t.co/VFQ4dDc3tF

— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) October 3, 2026