Giants up to fourth with tight win

Photo: William Cherry

A crowd of 6,242 fans saw Belfast Giants edge past Manchester Storm with a Charlie Curti winner 9:03 from the end of regulation.

The teams were tied through both 20 and 40 minutes at the SSE Arena, with a goal apiece in the middle period to set up an exciting finish.

After a scoreless first, Manchester thought they'd opened the scoring early in the second with a puck that snuck through Tyler Beskorowany's pads and sat around the goal line. The play was blown down with no goal given on the ice, a decision upheld on video review. The Giants' best chance to open the scoring was on the very next play. but Evan Wenninger threw out an excellent glove hand to deny Mark Cooper on the breakaway. Henrik Eriksson took a tripping minor in his own end at 37:32, and Manchester needed only eight seconds to make the advantage count through Stephen Johnson. With Storm looking like they'd head into the break ahead, Mark Cooper faked a one-timer and instead fed Bobby MacIntyre for a tap-in to level the game with four seconds left in the period.

Storm missed a golden chance to go back ahead when they enjoyed some 40 seconds of a 5-on-3 man advantage without really working Beskorowany. They were made to pay three minutes later when Charlie Curti let a shot fly from the point that went all the way through and past Weninger to put the Giants ahead with 9:03 left in period three. Ciaran Long missed the puck on the next shift as the Giants came close to going further ahead. With 1:29 to play, Matt Ginn called his timeout and pulled Weninger but Storm lost possession and weren't able to put pressure on Beskorowany. A late faceoff with ten seconds to go gave Storm one more chance to tie the game, where a Matt Murphy shot was blocked and the rebound flew just wide of the Giants' net.

Belfast held on for the win and moved level with Glasgow Clan in fourth place.