Giants Storm to Four-Point Weekend With Victory Over Manchester

Jordan Kawaguchi and Bo Hanson struck in the first period, and Scott Conway made it safe in the second period to give Adam Keefe’s side back-to-back wins on the weekend following Saturday’s shootout win over the Guildford Flames.

First Period

The Giants would dominate the opening period, and they laid siege to David Tendeck’s net early on, Kawaguchi hitting the side-netting before Mark Cooper fired straight at the midriff of the netminder before Kawaguchi did open the scoring at 6:24, some hard work from Ben Lake seeing him go around the net and feed the puck back to the doorstep for the winger to flick home (1-0).

A Joe Morrow tripping penalty kept the pressure on for the Giants, and the top line nearly struck twice, Conway dribbling a rebound wide, and J.J. Piccinich’s redirect just missed the net too, but Hanson would grab the second shortly after ripping a shot wide from the slot, the defenceman gaining the blue-line and beating Tendeck low glove from distance at 13:06 (2-0).

Both sides had chances to strike on the powerplay late as a Ryan Hughes tripping call led to Bobo Carpenter tipping a shot into the pads of Tendeck, but even when Lake was called for cross-checking, it was still the Giants who had the best chance as Pierre-Olivier Morin couldn’t finish on a shorthanded breakaway, although Jackson Whistle had to make a fantastic save to deny Cameron Critchlow in front in the dying stages.

Second Period

After facing just four shots in the entire first period, Whistle was called into action early in the second with a flurry of stops, his best seeing him prevent Tyler Hinam from opening the scoring on the rebound, and his reward was Conway adding a third at 23:18, the centre pinging his shot in off the post from the left circle off Karl Boudrias’ drop pass (3-0).

As temperatures rose following a clash off the puck involving Morin, a manic shift saw Mike Lee unable to stuff a wraparound attempt, Whistle make a huge save to deny Alexis d’Aoust on the breakaway and David Goodwin blanked in close, and the chances kept coming after that as Elijiah Barriga’s one-timer was saved by Tendeck and Whistle stood tall to stop D’Aoust for a second time on the breakaway.

The goaltender’s best stop of the period was undoubtedly his third on D’Aoust, the winger seemingly with an empty net to shoot into but Whistle sliding back across to make a dramatic glove stop, and the Giants got a massive shot in the arm headed into the third period as they killed off a late 49-second 5-on-3 as Lake (high sticking) and Morin (slashing) both sat.

Third Period

Whistle started the period with another world class stop, this time to keep Stephen Johnson at bay, with Lee blazing the Giants’ first effort of the frame over the crossbar as he walked in from the left circle, but the Storm would get on the board at 47:19 through Gianluca Esteves, who battled behind the net to bring the puck back in front and turn and fire past Whistle (3-1).

Conway almost provided the Giants with an instant response as he had two bites in front, only for Tendeck to make two monster saves to deny him, and then Kawaguchi saw his sharp angle shot go over off the netminder’s shoulder, although Belfast did survive a scare when Esteves thought he had his second, only to see it ruled out for a hand pass.

On his birthday, Ciaran Long almost put the result beyond doubt when his right circle shot glanced off the glove of Tendeck and over, but the game was already won and when Morrow was penalised for the second time in the game, called for slashing, that allowed the Giants to see out the win in comfort.

Next Up

Next up, the Giants welcome the Nottingham Panthers to The SSE Arena, Belfast on Wednesday 12 February for the first leg of the Challenge Cup semi-final. Tickets are on sale here.