Giants shut out Bolzano for first CHL win of 2023/24

Photo: William Cherry

Belfast Giants returned to home ice and put on an excellent performance to beat ICE HL side HC Bolzano 4-0 at the SSE Arena, getting them off the mark after three road losses. A crowd of 6.130 saw Tyler Beskorowany log the Giants' first-ever CHL shutout, stopping all 28 shots he faced.

The Giants took an early lead at 6:53 after a couple of chances for the visitors - Greg Printz's pass across the front of Niklas Svedberg's net was poke home at the far post by Quinn Preston. Having killed off two minors, the Giants then doubled their advantage when Daniel Tedesco's shot snuck through Svedberg's five-hole with 16:01 played.

Period two was a very stop-start affair with a number of minors in the second half. Having already killed a Preston Slashing penalty, the Giants had just killed off the same player's Hooking minor when a fortunate bounce allowed Kohei Sato to skate through and beat Svedberg 1-on-0 at 34:58. Printz and Travis Brown were given penalties four seconds apart to put the Giants down to just three skaters for 1:56, but some excellent bodies on the line, and stops by Tyler Beskorowany, kept Bolzano off the board and kept the Giants three up after 40 minutes.

Daniel Tedesco's second goal of the night made things more comfortable for the hosts at 50:07. He tapped in a rebound after smart play from Mark Cooper, banking the puck off the side of the net to earn space in front, draw a save from Svedberg.

The Giants held out for the remaining 9:53 to earn a win which lifted them up to 16th in the overall standings - a position which would see them into the Round of 16 if they can hold it through the final two gamedays of the opening phase.