Giants stay perfect against Devils

Photo: Phillip Magowan

Belfast Giants continued their 100% record against Cardiff Devils this season, coming from behind at a sold-out SSE Arena for a 4-1 win.

"I think it was a good team effort. Cardiff have a good team," began Pierre-Olivier Morin, who scored two goals for the Giants. "They're physical and have a good offence, and we matched that pretty well tonight.

"We had a big crowd with full volume tonight, and we could feel the energy from the fans. I thought we stuck to our game for 60 minutes, and we came out with the win. It's nice, but we have to be ready for tomorrow. It's going to come quickly again, and tomorrow is another day."

The SEE Arena, complete with a full bowl and over 7,200 fans inside, was rocking the part one of this weekend's double-header between the two sides. It was Cardiff who took the lead early in the period at 3:36 to silence the home crowd but delight their healthy travelling support. It was a scrappy goal as the puck broke to Tyler Busch just outside the right circle, and he finished past Whistle to give Cardiff the lead with 3:36 played. That was where the scoring ended in an opening period without a penalty called.

The Giants started period two well and managed to grab an equaliser at 25:46 through Pierre-Olivier Morin. Bobo Carpenter carried the puck around the net and found Morin in front who shot form in close past Mac Carruth to tie the game. Belfast arguably should have gone ahead in the period, the best falling to JJ Piccinich with a penalty shot which Carruth came up big to stop. The home side also saw three powerplay opportunities go by without success, leaving the scores level heading into period three.

"You've got to expect those games at this time of the year with the ranking being so tight, so we know every game matters," responded Morin when asked if any doubts were creeping into his team after not being ahead through 40 minutes. "Sometimes it goes in faster, but here we felt pretty good being 1-1 here at home going into the third period."

Again the Giants struck early in the period. Grant Mismash succeeded toi put the puck into the slot at the second attempt as his side broke the other way, with captain Mark Cooper the lucky recipient to crash a shot past Carruth with 45:48 gone. A late penalty on Mismash for shooting the puck out of bounds gave the Devild a chance to tie things up, but hitting Whistle's post was the closest they came. 

With the teams back at five skaters each, Carruth made an excellent save with his stick to stop Ben Lake rounding him and putting the game to bed. The Devils' goalie was pulled with 2:06 to play, but 30 seconds later Piccinich won a foot race for a cleared puck and slotted into the empty net from a tight angle. Morin added his second of the night as the Devils pulled Carruth again to make it 4-1 with 21 seconds to go.

"Tomorrow is a new game so we've got to start strong and build as the game goes on, but we've got to take what was positive from today and maybe make a couple of adjustments if we need to," added Morin. "Overall, I think it's just working harder than the other team because in the end, both teams have talent and are physical, so we've just got to keep it simple and dig deep."