Giants maintain unbeaten start

Photo: James Assinder

Belfast Giants continued their unbeaten start to the 2023/24 season with a two-goal win over Cardiff Devils in an enthralling game at the Vindico Arena.

Sean Norris put the visitors ahead just 2:48 into the game off a loose puck that he was the quickest to react to. That was the only goal of an exciting opening period where both teams relied on excellent goaltending to keep the score at a one-goal game. 

The Devils had been pushing for an equaliser at the end of the first period, and 41 seconds into the second they did make their man advantage count through Marcus Crawford from the point. The home side were unable to stay level for long, however, undone by an excellent pass from Greg Printz to find Daniel Tedesco for a one-time finish on the powerplay at 26:21. Five and a half minutes later, the Devils were unable to clear their zone on a couple of attempts and were punished when the puck broke to Charlie Curti to fire past Bowns and put the visitors 3-1 up. Riley Brandt missed a golden chance to tie the game when through on Tyler Beskorowany, but he stayed at the net long enough to fire home a rebound at 34:09 after a scramble in front of the Giants' net. 

Down by one going into the final period, the home side pushed for the equaliser and were denied by a couple of excellent Beskorowany stops. A poor Printz hit saw him ejected for Boarding with 6:40 to go, with the Devils eventually having a three-minute man-advantage after Josh Batch's minor for the afters had expired. There was no breakthrough for the Devils, and with two minutes left to play Bowns was pulled for the extra skater. Off a neutral zone faceoff, Quinn Preston shot straight into the empty net to wrap up the game for the Giants with 18 seconds remaining.