Giants start fast, thrash Stars
Photo: William Cherry
Belfast Giants put four goals past Dundee Stars inside nine minutes before eventually running out 7-1 winners at the SSE Arena.
It was an electric start for the Giants with four goals coming inside the first nine minutes, putting them in full control in front of a big midweek crowd.
"It's really good and really important to start well. Obviously when you have the start like we did, we kind of got into the flow of things and were able to play our game and bring our pace to them and getting the first goal always puts you on track to have a good 60 minutes," said forward Kyle Osterberg. "I think the message every single game is to start on time and push the pace early and try to take teams out of it, make them discouraged and make them not want to be here and want to play as much so tonight was really big and it helped out getting off to a great start."
Elijiah Barriga, the ex-Dundee Star, opened the scoring at 1:33. Bobo Carpenter fired the puck into the crease, and Barriga nipped in front of the defender and fired past Richard Sabol, to give the Giants the lead.
It didn't take long until Gabe Bast grabbed a second for the Giants. Bast initially had his shot saved, with the puck flying up in the air off Sabol. Everyone lost track of the puck, and when it hit the ice, Bast was first to react and slam in the rebound at 6:15.
102 seconds later, the Giants got a third through Mark Cooper. The goal came on powerplay as Cooper danced around Sabol and finished well at 7:56 on the stretch.
A needless tripping minor taken by Cole MacDonald led to the Giants making it four just 46 seconds later. Good passing between Jordan Kawaguchi and Bobo Carpenter set up Pierre-Olivier Morin for the one-timer in the slot to take the lead to four. Marc LeFebvre called a timeout thereafter to calm his side down.
The Stars managed to pull one back at 11:38 through Jake Elmer. Elmer took possession on Belfast's blueline and buried the puck through Whistle's five hole to make it 4-1.
The visitors then went on powerplay, giving them a chance to get back into the game. However, it was the Giants who capitalized when JJ Piccinich stole the puck in the defensive zone and finished well on the breakaway to score the shorthanded goal to cap off a dominant first period.
Period two ended without goals and was somewhat less busy than the six-goal 20 minutes that had preceded it. Both teams saw a powerplay go by without scoring as the Giants carried their 5-1 lead into the break.
Cameron Pound converted a Kyle Osterberg pass into the slot from below the goal line to put the Giants 6-1 ahead with 7:29 played in period three. Ben Lake scored his first goal in 11 games with the Giants’ seventh of the night with a nice individual effort inside the final four minutes to round out the scoring. The Giant gave Andrew Dixon the final 3:58 of the game in net as the home fans counted down an excellent victory.
The Giants' win moved them into third in the league, ahead of a huge game against second-placed Sheffield on Sunday. "It's a really big game, but every game is a big game for us. We want to get two points every single game, but it's going to be a good measuring stick for us. We've had some good battles with Sheffield but now we're finally at home against them so it'll be a good test, and with a good crowd and energy on our side we're going to try and come out like we did tonight and take over the game as quick as possible" added Osterberg.
