Giants end Steelers' winning run

Photo: William Cherry

Belfast Giants ended Sheffield's eight-game unbeaten run, and moved themselves to within a point of the lead in the Elite League, with a 4-2 win over the Steelers in front of 7,120 fans at the SSE Arena.

"It's huge," said Bo Hanson on the win, "Sheffield are won of the top teams in the league and to beat them at home too, especially in front of our crowd, builds our momentum, and hopefully, we can keep climbing moving forward."

It was a cagey start as both sides knew the magnitude of the game. A well-worked put Sheffield one up at 10:11 when Brandon Whistle played the puck into Vallerand, who released to captain Robert Dowd to fire past Jackson Whistle in the Belfast net.

The Giants were able to get level on powerplay through Grant Mismash, as Patrick Watling was called for interference. It was patient build-up from the Giants. The puck was worked to the right from Mike Lee to Grant Mismash, who hit a one-timer through Matt Greenfield's five-hole to get the Giants level at 19:08.

"I thought our first period was pretty solid, and it's unfortunate that we were down one going into the last couple of minutes," continued Hanson. "Tying it up improved our morale in the room and gives us life as well. From there, we started the second period on time, got a couple goals there, obviously gave up one, but going into the third with a lead is huge for us."

Period two had a lot going on. The Giants went ahead through Bobo Carpenter who fired home Gabe Bast's perfect feed at 27:37 to put his side 2-1 in front.

David Goodwin, on his return to the Giants, played the puck to Ciaren Long in the ofensive zone to allow the British forward to deke past his man and beat Greenfield at 29:24 to make it 3-1.

The Steelers managed to pull one back through a rocket from Patrick Watling at 33:32, high over Whistle to make it a one-goal game again.

Tensions boiled over as Josh Roach and Marc-Olivier Vallerand both fighting majors, with players from both sides involved in the scrum as the period ended.

The all-important next goal went the way of the Giants 8:34 into period three through captain Mark Cooper to put them back two ahead. The Giants almost hit a fifth when a rebound bounced off the skate of Colton Saucerman, but an excellent reaction save by Greenfield gloved the puck as it rolled towards the goal line with some five and a half minutes to go.

A late cross-checking minor on Brandon Whistle limited what the Steelers could do inside the final five minutes, and although they played with six skaters for the final 124 seconds they couldn't get one back and the Giants took an important win.

Hanson concluded: "To be at the top you've got to beat better teams, and they're definitely one of them. A lot of respect to those guys, but it feels good to beat them for sure."

If Belfast beat Manchester Storm on Sunday, they'll go top of the table.