Belfast focus stays on the ice with three wins

After a difficult week at the headquarters of Stena Line Belfast Giants, the team had to battle hard just to keep focused why they were in Belfast in the first place.

Before any of the following took place, Belfast’s Craig Peacock stood head and shoulders above the parapet by stating: “We know how tough it is to retain this title but we also know what is required and despite what some people might think, we certainly won’t be giving it up without a real fight. The worst thing for us would be to have Nottingham come to us as Elite League Champions already”

The first positive step was taken away in Dundee, where after faltering into third place Belfast jumped straight back up to second place in the league standings with a hard fought 2-0 win against the Dundee Stars.

An early goal from Kevin Saurette made the score line 1-0 to Belfast. A change of fortune came Belfast’s way as Jeff Mason’s scored the Giants’ second goal following his twenty game scoring drought concluded Belfast goal output.

Garrett Zemlak secured his fourth shutout, which helped make the whole squad start to believing in themselves again after this 2-0-road victory.

Another bonus was secured through the assisted gained through the Giants second goal by Colin Shields, who became the all time leading points scorer for the Giants organisation after that point.

The next big task was competing successfully against their arch rivals Sheffield in Belfast’s home barn whlist facing their fans after all the corporate goings on. Todd Kelman, Giants GM, gave a rousing speech before the game to rally all the fans and troops together.

The Giants roster was still missing Andrew Fournier, Will Colbert and Sam Roberts who have been out through injury for a long period of time. Thankfully, we saw the return in a back up roll of Stephen Murphy in case Garrett Zemlak was to go down injured.

Saturday night’s game at the Odyssey Arena was another first for the Giants organisation as current head coach – Doug Christiansen becomes the longest serving coach in Giants history, racking up a total of 176 games in charge.

A Belfast win would keep them in contention to win the league for a second year in a row but surprisingly enough the Steelers outshot the Giants in the opening period; however it was the Giants’ Mark Garside who found the net first for Belfast.

Only forty three seconds of the second period were played when the Giants doubled their lead with a strike from Adam Keefe. The killer blow came in the final period from the Giants third line this time from the stick of Darryl Lloyd.

With the game won it was a case of trying to get goaltender Zemlak his fifth shutout. However, with Steelers on the power play Tyler Michel ended any chance of that as he scored a consolation goal in the dying minutes of the game.

With two out of the three games being made successful, could the Giants make it three in a row in Cardiff?

It took a great effort from Doug Christiansen’s squad to come back from an early two goal deficit after only 105 seconds to move to within a couple of points of league leaders Nottingham.

The hero of the night was the Giants new signing Chad Langlais as the attacking defenseman counted 2+2 on the night. After Cardiff’s Max Birbraer then Josh Batch scored for the Devils, it looked game over.

However, the Giants refused to panic with the first come back goal coming from Darryl Lloyd to end the opening period only one goal down.

That score gave the Giants confidence in the second period and netted twice in just over two minutes through Chad Langlais scoring his first of the game shorthanded. Then, on the power play, another Robby Sandrock special gave the Giants the lead.

In the final period Noah Clarke lit the goal lamp again to give Belfast a two-goal cushion. However the Devils weren’t finished either with skipper Stuart McRae scoring to take the game close again.

With the game now wide open and chances came and went at both ends of the rink. However it was the Giants new boy Langlais who added his second and this turned out to be too much of a gap for Devils to close and a vital two points were in Giants’ clutches.

Doug Christiansen said after the home victory over Sheffield: “From a hockey point of view we did what we had to do. Took good decision with the puck, our penalty kill was outstanding and also gained a power play goal.

“When you play against Sheffield they have so many guys that can score you have to try and shutout their top lines. Our third line was outstanding again scoring all three goals, which Sheffield couldn’t match.” Christiansen concluded.

Man of the Match Darryl Lloyd spoke after the game saying: “Every one did their jobs tonight and our system work extremely well. Our new design on our play allowed me to gain two assists and a goal which is good for me but better for the team as it allowed us to take the two points.

“We just try to go as hard as we can and the results went well for us tonight. The Steelers had a hard game in Nottingham the night before, which might have taken some steam out of their boiler, but a win is a win and we will take that which ever way it come.” Lloyd rounded off by saying.