Giants win in shootout after Clan late show

Photo: William Cherry

Belfast Giants threw away a two-goal lead but survived to win in a shootout against Glasgow Clan on Sunday afternoon in front of 6,247 fans at the SSE Arena.

Clan, who had beaten the Giants 3-1 on home ice less than 24 hours earlier, found themselves ahead early. Devon Sideroff broke 2-on-1 and opted to shoot instead of pass, beating Jackson Whistle low at 3:54.

The hosts were back level under four minutes later, however. Jordan Kawaguchi’s sweet, backhanded drop pass set up Mike Lee for a thunderous shot that sailed high into Landon Bow’s net. The Giants thought they’d taken the lead before the end of the opening period, but the goal was ruled out on the ice for goaltender interference.

Gary Haden had the best chance to put Clan back ahead early in period two, but couldn’t beat Whistle on the breakaway. A low second ultimately ended without additional goals despite a pair of powerplays for each team.

Grant Mishmash turned the game in favour of the hosts inside four third-period minutes. After Clan failed to clear their zone, he capitalised on a give and go with Kawaguchi to beat Bow and make it 2-1 43 seconds into the period. Just over three minutes later, Mismash won the puck in the neutral zone and wristed high over Bow to put the Giants up by two.

Both sides missed powerplay opportunities to add to their goal totals, but, with 2:45 to go and his side still two down, Corey Neilson pulled Bow for the extra attacker. A needless Mitchell heard roughing penalty between whistles, followed by a misconduct for arguing about it, put Clan down a skater with 70 seconds to go with looked to have killed off their hopes of any form of comeback. Not so, however. Sideroff took a stretch pass and beat Whistle with 43 seconds to play to make it 3-2, and then, incredibly, slotted home at the top of the crease after a wonderful Matt Pelech pass to tie the game with 29 seconds remaining in regulation.

Heard’s penalty carried over into overtime but the Giants couldn’t make their extra skater count. Most of OT was then played 4-on-4 but did not produce a winner.

Things were decided in a shootout. Mishmash, Pierre-Olivier Morin and Ben Lake all scored, and with no Clan goal in three rounds the Giants got the win they almost looked to have given away.