Giants hold on to beat Storm, go top of league

Photo: William Cherry

Belfast Giants survived a Manchester Storm comeback to hold on and win out 3-2 on Sunday afternoon at the SSE Arena, 6,923 fans saw the Giants go top of the table with the win.

"We needed four points this weekend to secure first place. I thought we had a really good first period and probably dropped off a little bit, but we found a way to win, so that's important," commented JJ Piccinich after the game. "We have to give Manchester credit. They did the right things with the puck towards the end and had us on our heels a little bit. I thought we had a little bit of a pushback with five or six minutes left in the third. We did have to do a lot of defending, and we did, and that's what matters."

With a minor on Loren Ulett for tripping, the Giants took full advantage and opening the scoring midway through the period - good passing from David Goodwin and Grant Mismash set up Bobo Carpenter at the back post to put the Giants ahead with 10:31 played.

Another powerplay doubled the home side's lead. Alexis D'Aoust was off for a high stick, and again excellent passing from the hosts saw Jordan Kawaguchi find Mark Cooper along the boards, and he squared it for JJ Piccinich to make it 2-0 at 15:27. 

Thirty seconds before the break, Gabe Bast fired from the mid-slot into the bottom Corner of Evan Wenigner's net to make it 3-0.

Storm were forced into a netminder changed 2:49 into period two. Racing through on a shorthanded breakaway, Carpenter pulled a move but in doing so collided with Weninger who needed to leave the game. Alex Oldale took over in Storm's net and wouldn't be beaten.

The visitors saw a few powerplays go by without scoring, including a short 5-on-3, but did get back into things at 36:25 when D'Aoust was picked out by Craig Martin and saw his shot loop over Jackson Whistle and into the net.

48 seconds into period three, Craig Martin scored from the slot on a powerplay to get Storm back to within one. The visitors were on the front foot and called Whistle into some decent stops to keep the Giants ahead while Oldale was rarely troubled. 

With 1:49 to play, Storm called a timeout and pulled Oldale for the extra skater. Having had some decent possession, Tyler Rockwell had Storm's best chance to tie things in the final seconds when he got some space in the slot, but saw Whistle glove the puck down to end the game.

The win put Belfast top of the league. "It's good to finally secure it. We've been so close to first place this whole time so now that we are outright in first place, at least for the meantime, it's a good feeling in the locker room" concluded Piccinich,