Belfast’s Christmas blip to Sheffield

When ever the Elite League enters the festive period, one team or another has a hiccup. The Stena Line Belfast Giants were on a Christmas six game winning streak and thought they had escaped a Christmas falter – until the Steelers arrived in town.

But let’s not get ahead of things. First there was the Giants’ amazing win in Scotland against their Celtic cousins, that of the Braehead Clan, in what looked like a cruise to victory.

Both teams had chances in the opening period to get the go ahead goal. However it was, Belfast’s latest signing, Kevin Saurette who needed no introduction or invitation to score goals that netted the brace against Braehead.

The first in the opening stanza with the second coming mid-way through the next period. When Colin Shields got on the Giants’ score sheet with a powerplay goal the Clan looked dead and buried.

However the Clan kept their head’s and with a delayed penalty call Ash Goldie pulled one back. The Giants ran into penalty trouble late in the game resulting in the Clan scoring during a five on three powerplay from Robert Farmer which made it game on once again.

Each team came close to that vital goal and both goaltenders made some outstanding saves. As it turned out neither team could find their way to the net and the Giants skated away with the points. With the Giants holding on they were now two points behind league leaders Nottingham with a game in hand.

Next up came the game for which all Giants fans were waiting. Sheffield came to town with a must win mentality – the only result possible for their game plan and title hopes.

The Steelers arrived in Belfast having just endured two straight losses and to keep their title hopes alive they needed the win badly. On the other hand the Giants started as favorites having won their last six games.

That sentiment meant nothing to a team as hungry as Sheffield were. When they entered ‘Fortress Odyssey’ Sheffield were single minded. Following a goalless opening period where they were clearly in the ascendency the Steelers scored two in the second and added a further two in the third to skate off with the points convincingly.

Sheffield’s goals came from Steven Goertzen, Jeff Legue followed by Ashley Tait making 3-0 in the third period. A shutout was on the cards for Sheffield’s John DeCaro but Daymen Rycroft found the net giving the home side some little but way too late consolation.
The Giants pulled Stephen Murphy from between the pipes to gain some advantage however Simon Ferguson found the empty net with just fifteen seconds remaining to finally kill off a very disappointing outing for the Giants.

Following the game Giants Coach Doug Christiansen had this to say: “I give Sheffield credit as they played a great game and we clearly didn’t. They came to Belfast desperate for the win and gain the two points and they got them.

“There were areas of the game from Belfast’s point that are more disappointing than others. We clearly have to get better as a hockey team if we are going to accomplish our goals.

“Their team (Sheffield) was built to be more physical than we are. There is no question about that and in our team talk we discussed that before the game started. They were going to finish their checks all over the ice and Belfast needed to depend on their skill.

“We needed to complete our opportunities and bury our chances, which we didn’t do but they did. One thing that might get lost in the end result was that Stephen Murphy had an outstanding game in the Giants’ goal despite the score line.

“The lack of scoring on our powerplay opportunities was more than a little disappointing. Our special teams played well over the festive period and we changed that, trying to improve the output from the unit.

“That didn’t work so it’s back to the drawing board. If our guys thought practices were tough in recent days well, we have to clearly get better if we are going to do the things we want to get done. The powerplay is a massive part of that which means harder work in practice.

“We lost games before and I’m sure we will bounce back in our next two home games on Friday against the Dundee Stars then Saturday when Coventry Blaze are our visitors.

“We have a team of guys that care and we are going to see what we are made of over the next few month” concluded Christiansen.

The final results after the weekends play following the Giants loss combined with the two wins for both Sheffield and Nottingham find Belfast six points behind league leading Nottingham with Sheffield closing in on the Giants only three points in arrears in third place.