Giants Fall to Defeat as Sheffield Show Steel

Despite Elijiah Barriga opening the scoring with two goals inside the first nine minutes, the rest of the game belonged to the Steelers, who fought back to take the two points.

First period

The Giants got off to a dream start just 85 seconds into the game when they pulled ahead through Barriga, a long stretch pass from J.J. Piccinich sending the winger into the left circle and he sniped it into the top corner (0-1), although he then had to switch to defensive duties to break up an odd man rush for Mikko Juusola and Daniel Ciampini.

Belfast was gifted an opportunity to extend their lead when Kevin Tansey was then ejected for boarding Ciaran Long and after Piccinich hit the bar with the first chance on the major powerplay, Barriga doubled his and the Giants’ tally at 8:38 with another right-hand corner snipe from the left face-off dot (0-2).

But the home side would finish the period strongly and after Patrick Watling and Joel Janutainen fired over from promising positions, the former would get them on the board as a wrist shot from the left circle snuck under the glove of Tom McCollum at 16:26 (1-2), with Mitchell Balmas hitting the post shortly before the buzzer sounded for the intermission.

Second period

McCollum came up with a big save early in the middle frame as Watling found Marc-Olivier Vallerand in front, but the netminder padded away his low shot. He was even better a minute later when Juusola carved through the middle of the ice all the way from his own zone but saw his shot gloved down by the goaltender.

When the Giants finally got motoring after the restart, they looked dangerous and Scott Conway nearly wrapped a shot in off the skate of Cole Shudra but it just went wide, although Sheffield continued to threaten and McCollum once again had to glove down an effort from Juusola after a turnover behind the Giants net.

But the tying goal eventually came and it was delivered on the powerplay by Sacha Guimond, Gabe Bast’s holding penalty enabling the defenceman to fire in from the blue-line at 32:03 (2-2), although Bast nearly made immediate amends for the infringement as his delightful pass to the back door got the required tip by Barriga but Matt Greenfield saved well.

It would be Sheffield who would hold the second intermission advantage, however, as Watling grabbed his second at 38:28 when he was found in the left circle by Mark Simpson and beat McCollum with the wrist shot (3-2), and the Giants would finish the period on the penalty kill after being caught with too many men on the ice.

Third period

Having killed off the remainder of the penalty to start the third period, the Giants set about trying to tie the game but they found getting pucks on Greenfield tough, while at the other end a rare foray up the ice saw Balmas get a redirect on a pass to the crease that rang the crossbar with McCollum beaten.

Despite Belfast pressing for an equaliser, it would be Sheffield who would pull away and claim the win as first Veeti Vainio doubled their advantage with a shot from the point that went all the way through at 50:53 (4-2) and then Robert Dowd finished it off at 56:06 with the finish from the left circle to end the scoring (5-2).

Next up

Next up, the Belfast Giants hit the road to Scotland to face the Glasgow Clan on Wednesday 13 November, before returning to The SSE Arena, Belfast for their next home game on Saturday 16 November vs Fife Flyers in Challenge Cup action. Tickets are available to purchase here.

Photos by Dean Woolley.