Giants end Blaze's unbeaten league start

Photo: Scott Wiggins

Coventry Blaze's unbeaten League start came to an end at the hands of Belfast Giants, who made it a four-point weekend on the road in England.

JJ Piccinich was the star for the visitors with a hat trick. "I thought our team played awesome, I was the beneficiary of three good team plays and the rest is history, we had a good weekend," said the Giants forward. 

"We couldn't have asked for anything better over these two games. In Guildford we started well and held on, whereas tonight we got the lead, gave up a little but finished strong."

The Giant took the lead just past the 11-minute mark when Scott Conway got on a loose puck and beat Mat Robson. The hosts saw two powerplay chances come and go before being dealt a blow the other way – with David Clements in the box, Piccinich drove the net and lifted the puck over Robson to double the lead at 18:21.

Coventry peppered Tom McCollum with shots at the beginning of period two but without finding a way to get the puck over the line. Somewhat against the run of play, Robson thought he had a Josh Roach shot, but the puck bounced free and onto the stick of Piccinich to make it 3-0 with 28:08 gone in the game.

A Chase Gresock fly-by tipped Alessio Luciani’s shot past McCollum 59 seconds later to get the hosts back into things.

And they were very much back in the game 57 seconds before the end of the period as Jack Hopkins fed Morten Jurgens for a sensational whip into the top corner of McCollum’s net to make it 2-3.

68 seconds into period three, Piccinich was given space off a faceoff win to fire home from the high slot to make it a hat trick and put the Giants back two ahead. That goal seemed to stall the home side's momentum, and when Bo Hanson's shot was tipped past Robson by a Blaze defenseman, the Giants had a 5-2 lead they weren't going to lose.