Former Vancouver Giants Jackson Houck and Cody Porter helped put another dent in their old club’s playoff hopes.
Houck scored two goals and Porter made 28 saves in the Calgary Hitmen’s 3-2 overtime victory over the Giants on Friday at the Pacific Coliseum.
Vancouver traded Houck, Porter and Jakob Stukel to the Hitmen in October for Chase Lang and Ben Thomas.
Radel Fazleev, who assisted on Houck’s two goals, bagged the winner at 2:39 of the extra session, beating Ryan Kubic to the stick side on a breakaway after coming out of the penalty box. Fazleev had been sent to the sin bin after dumping Ty Ronning in front of the Calgary net.
Porter made six saves in overtime, the best a glove stop on a Brennan Menell shot from the top of the slot.
Lang had tied the game at 2-2 at 16:22 of the third period with a dazzling individual effort, going coast-to-coast before slipping a shot far side past Porter. It was his 22nd goal of the campaign. Ronning opened the scoring, putting Vancouver up 1-0 at 4:14 of the first with his 28th.
Houck now has 17 goals on the season. He missed 13 Calgary games earlier this season with an upper body injury.
Calgary (31-19-1-1) is fifth in the Eastern Conference.
It was the second meeting between the clubs since the trade. Vancouver won 5-2 in Calgary on Jan. 8.
Vancouver (20-28-4-2) now trails the Kamloops Blazers (23-21-5-3) by eight points for the eighth and final playoff spot in the WHL’s Western Conference, and Kamloops has two games in hand. The Giants are eight points in back of the seventh-placed Portland Winterhawks (26-24-2-0), and the Winterhawks, too, have two games in hand.
Coach Lorne Molleken and the Giants have 18 games left in the 72-game regular season. Their next contest is Monday afternoon against the Edmonton Oil Kings.
