Giants looking to keep up pressure on leaders

Photo: William Cherry

Belfast welcome Fife to the SSE Arena on Friday night with both teams hoping to build winning streaks.

The Giants are the EIHL's in-form side with eight straight league wins. What makes Adam Keefe's side's run all the more impressive is that they've only conceded eight goals in those games while scoring 41 themselves. The string of results put together by Belfast has them five points off top spot but with a game in hand and, notably, five games this season still to play against leaders Sheffield. Scott Conway and JJ Piccinich sit first and second for total league points with 31 and 30 respectively, and adding in their linemate David Goodwin the trio have combined for 81 points this season in league play alone. The three forwards have scored over 40% of the Giants league goals so far.

Fife played their first game since leaving COVID-19 protcool against Dundee on Monday night and skated away with a well-earned 6-3 win. That result brought the Flyers back into touch with the teams at the lower end of the table, although their points percentage of 33% overall remains the league's worst. Forward Michael McNicholas has been a revelation for the Flyers this season with 10 goals and 12 assists in just 18 games played - he's responsible for under 25% of all Fife's league goals so far this season.

These teams have already faced each other six times so far this season, and the Giants have won all six by a combined score of 23-5. Fife have not won in Belfast since 23 September 2018.