Shootout victory for Giants over Dundee

Photo: William Cherry

Belfast Giants edged past Dundee Stars at the SSE Arena for the second time this season with a 3-2 shootout win on Wednesday night.

Matt Foley scored his first goal for the Giants with a laser that found the top corner of Anton Svensson's net with 11:25 played. That was how things stayed into the first intermission, but the Stars were level early in period two after surviving osme drama. A pair of minor penalties on the Giants put the Stars on a 5-on-3 advantage, but Ben Lake broke the other way and was through 1-on-0 against Svensson, only two be brought down by the Stars' goalie with a two-pad stack in the slot. Lake missed the resulting penalty shot, and 70 seconds later Ben Sokay scooped the puck home from close range to tie things up. 

Gabe Bast put the Giants back ahead with 7:06 played in period two, but Sokay again levelled on another 5-on-3 at 33:58. The Stars were then forced into killing a major penalty after Eric Naslund was ejected for a nasty knee on Scott Conway.

The Giants had the better of the chances in period three but neither side could find a go-ahead goal, and the game headed to overtime. Inside the final minute of the bonus period, Sokay hit the post as he almost hit a hat trick and the decider, and on the very next shift both David Goodwin and Conway had chances to win it, but overtime ended without a goal.

In the shootout, Lake and Chad Butcher both scored, while Peyton Jones stopped all four Stars efforts to earn Belfast the extra point.