Giants back to four points clear at top

Photo: William Cherry

A three-goal opening period helped Belfast Giants to a Saturday night win on their return to league action, while results elsewhere sent them back four points clear at the top of the Premier Sports Elite League table.

While the home side ended the first period three ahead, they were indebted to Tyler Beskorowany who made a series of excellent saves early on to deny Dundee the lead.

With those saves banked, the Giants then ran in three goals in under 13 minutes to take full control of the game. Jordan Boucher started things off when he pounced on a rebound from a Lewis Hook shot with 1:56 played. A beautiful tic-tac-toe play was finished by Mark Cooper following crisp passing from JJ Piccinich and David Goodwin saw the Giants double their lead on the powerplay at 4:36 after which Stars Head coach Omar Pacha called a time-out.

Piccinich went top shelf on a breakaway to make it 3-0 just under ten minutes later which left the Giants in command.

Sebastian Bengtsson scored from the slot to get Dundee on the board 2:56 from the end of period two, but when Piccinich picked out another fantastic top-shelf finish off the bar at 43:26 the game was all but done.

The Giants' win put them four points ahead of Sheffield, which is effectively a five-point lead thanks to the better regulation wins tie-breaker.