Sato settles it

Photo: William Cherry

Kohei Sato hit the game winning goal inside the final five minutes to give Belfast Giants a 4-3 victory over Nottingham Panthers on Friday night. The crowd of 5,796 saw en entertaining, back and forth game at the SSE Arena.

Quinn Preston gave the home side the lead with 4:25 played, only to be pegged back by a Mathieu Lemay powerplay goal with 4:15 left in the period.

Matt McLeod broke down the wing to set up Mark Cooper in the slot at 26:57 as the Giants made a powerplay count, followed just over five minutes later by Ara Nazarian finishing a rebound from a Preston shot for another powerplay goal. Panthers Head Coach Jonathan Paredes called his timeout to steady his side, and that had the desired effect.

Ollie Betteridge pulled one back at 37:26 off an excellent pass into the slot by Jeremy Welsh, while Westin Michaud tied the game with 10 seconds left in the period as the Panthers skated 5-on-3. 

Sato's goal in the final period was worthy of a game-winner, cutting in front the boards and doing it all himself in front of Rok Stojanovič with 55:17 played. The Panthers had a couple of goes at pulling Stojanovič for the extra skater in the final minutes, but were unable to tie the game again.

Belfast moved into the top five with the win.