Belfast hit hard at home by rampant Panthers

The Belfast Giants entered the Odyssey Arena on a high for the first leg of the Challenge Cup Final against the Nottingham Panthers. A winning streak of 12 games punctuated by a valuable penalty shots victory of the Sheffield Steelers have put Doug Christiansen’s side in the driving seat for the Elite League title.

But Thursday nights match up was strictly about gaining revenge. 12 months ago Corey Neilson’s Nottingham travelled to the Odyssey where they lifted the Challenge Cup in-front of the hurting Giants faithful. Such a vision remained fresh in the minds of Christiansen and those in White who returned from last season.

The Panthers entered the game following a disappointing loss to the Coventry Blaze that mathematically ended their title hopes for yet another year. However having taken the Challenge cup for the previous two seasons the impetus was in the Nottinghamshire side to achieve the lesser seen “three-peat” by retaining the trophy yet again.

A scrappy opening stanza was notable for it’s only goal, coming from former Giants stalwart Brandon Benedict midway through the period. He was the right man in the right place to fire past Stephen Murphy following excellent work by Sami Ryhanen and Matt Francis.

The Giants had their fair share of chances but were unable to push Craig Kowalski into error with too few high quality chances. Most notably during a  5-on-3 advantage as first Matt Myers took a tripping call and soon after a shocking boarding by Guy Lepine on Ryan Crane put the visitors to 3 men. Lepine lucky to only receive a 2 minute minor having hit Crane face first into the plexi-glass.

Belfast were unable to convert the advantage into a goal, however with only 2 seconds remaining in the first they believed they had scored. A mele in front of Kowalski’s goal left a puck bouncing in, around and under bodies. The Giants players arms went up in celebration, the red light went on, but referee Tom Darnell took time to consider the result, in the end he waved off the goal through an unsighted puck. A borderline call not falling the way of the home side much to the derision of the majority of patrons under the same roof.

Things went from bad to worse in the second period for Doug Christiansen’s league leaders. Despite  starting brightly the Giants fell back into a mode that allowed the Panthers to gain their first period advantage. The visitors were the first to the loose pucks, winning a majority of the face offs and doubled their advantage almost 12 minutes into the period. The teams matching up 4 v 4 on the ice when Panthers player coach Corey Neilson, already called for a roughing penalty, suckered-in a gullible Jeff Mason to evening the numbers with a roughing of his own. The Panthers won the draw and some quick play saw Brock Wilson slot David Clarke’s pass behind Stephen Murphy under 30 seconds into the penalties.

Matt Francis almost made it 3 straight off the restart, once again the Panthers won the face off like they had done and continued to do all period, skipped through the Giants defense with ease before forcing a low save from the Scotsman in the Giants goal. Francis, noted this week for being flipped in the air by Blaze’s Jeremie Domish on Sunday night’s defeat, got his goal seconds later. Rhett Gordon’s pass deflected by a sprawling Murphy only 13 seconds after the second goal, Panthers firmly in the driving seat.

The periods shot count read 21 a piece yet you would be hard pushed to recall a single Belfast attempt that had you on edge. A 3-0 Panthers advantage in the face of 6 minor penalty calls to the Giants single roughing on Jeff Mason left Doug Christiansen with his chance in the break to instil some motivation in his side to come back into the game.

The Panthers, however, almost pounced immediately into the final session. Matt Myers found all alone and on-side in the Giants zone was unable to beat Murphy only seconds into the period, the league leaders still being out played by the visitors.

And so it remained until only 90 seconds into the stanza when Mike Hoffman with a boarding call of his own, handed Nottingham their first powerplay of the game. What resulted was certainly not in the script of the leagues top penalty killing side. David Beauregard took only 28 seconds of the man advantage to put the Panthers 4-0 ahead. With only 41 minutes and 57seconds of the 120 minute cup final, the Nottingham Panthers, against the odds, look set to lift their 4th trophy in 3 seasons before the puck had even travelled to the NIC for the second leg.

Nottingham employed the trap as the final period drove on happy with a commanding advantage. The atmosphere draining from the home fans as another Challenge Cup final in the Odyssey seemed to be slipping away from the Giants as it had done famously in times gone by. What was left was the for the Giants to save face as best they can and try to keep their chances competitive in the return leg at the NIC next week. The play on the ice didn’t reflect this need for long stretches. Scrappy passes, lazy lay offs and few on target shots went unpunished as the Panthers sat back and waited out the final buzzer.

Hope returned to the home team with only 7 minutes remaining in the game. Jeff Mason’s fantastic scoring record from the defensive blueline was added to when his partner at the back, Giant’s captain, Jeremy Rebek fed him the puck and his shot screamed by Craig Kowalski. 4-1 and thoughts returned to the NIC only a few weeks ago when a Giants side, 2 goals down and 7 minutes left, mounted an incredible comeback to take the win with only seconds remaining.

However quite the opposite was to be the case tonight, with only 2 seconds left in the game Robert Dowd took a tripping penalty, the resulting face off summed up the Giants performance. The draw was lost to the Panthers and a screaming shot from David Beauregard on the buzzer smashed into the back of the net for his second and the visitors well deserved fifth. The Giants receiving exactly what they deserved for a night lackadaisical play.

The Giant’s 12 game winning streak, along with Robert Dowd’s 12 game scoring streak were brought to an abrupt end by a cruel final buzzer. The Nottingham Panthers more than worth the 5-1 scoreline. The Belfast Giants left rueing one of the worst performances of the season, out played, out passed and out scored by a Panthers team striving to gain something from the year.

The Panthers need only prepare for the return leg next Tuesday night in Nottingham as their chase for the league has passed on.

The Giants, however, still in the league title hunt, return to that competition this weekend in Edinburgh with the Boo’s of the Odyssey faithful ringing in their ears. Reminded that they are far from putting anything in their trophy cabinet yet.