Giants to the Four

• Belfast Giants at Cardiff Devils, OTW 4-3
• Giants Goals: Peacock, McBride, Garside, PEN SHOT
• Devils Goals: Smith, Pierce, Voth

After a tough opening game the previous weekend, the Giants went into the second weekend of the season seeking to get the season truly up and running. On Friday night, the much improved and sure to cause upsets this season, Hull Stingrays arrived in Belfast on the back of a pre-season P&O trophy tournament win where they had seemingly scored goals for fun.

The Giants started well, looking a much improved side from the opening game and Brock McBride got an early goal to hopefully set the home side on their way. However, a penalty called in the post goal melee saw Craig Peacock go to the box, soon to be joined by Jeremy Rebek giving Hull an early 5 on 3. Peacock was just back on the ice as Dominic Osman scored a fine powerplay goal to make it 1-1 after barely 5 minutes. As the first period drew to an end Robert Dowd finally put a powerplay goal on the board for the 2011/12 edition of the Giants and restored the advantage going into the first break.

The second period saw plenty of end to end action with Belfast creating some great chances. An early goal from Craig Peacock after some nice work from Benoit Doucet made it 3-1. Jeff Mason scored a fine individual goal, picking up the puck in the neutral zone, skating in on the right wing and roofing the puck over the highly worked Christian Boucher. Not long after, Adam Keefe took exception to a hit from Martin Ondrej in the corner and off came the gloves. Four quick punches later saw Ondrej exit the ice with a bloodied face, saluting the crowd as he went down the tunnel.

A fifth goal just 3 minutes into the final period from Jeremy Rebek jamming home a rebound from close in put the Giants 5-1 up and seemed to cause the team to ease off slightly. This gave Hull a lifeline and a great shot from Jereme Tendler got past Stephen Murphy to cut the deficit just a minute later. The deficit was further reduced as Josh Mizerek scored another fine well worked Stingrays goal with 13 minutes remaining. The game continued end to end, but the Giants held out with few major alarms.

Saturday saw Belfast fly to Cardiff for the first away game of the year in an arena where it is traditionally difficult to pick up any points. A flying start from the Devils seemed to prove this true as barely a minute in the Giants found themselves 2-0 down as Sam Smith and Jeff Pierce put the first 2 shots of the game into the net.

An early powerplay chance after 4 minutes with Scott Matzka in the box for a slash gave the Giants a chance to get a foot in the door, which Peacock gleefully took, slamming home from Benoit Doucet's fine feed. With play shifting from one end to the other on the small pad, and shots raining in on both goalies, it was the Devils who scored next, regaining their 2 goal advantage through Brad Voth after 13 minutes as both goalies earned their salary.

With a 2 goal deficit and 2 periods to go the next goal was crucial and the Giants managed to half that deficit during the 2nd period. Brock McBride putting away Jeff Mason's pass. In the 3rd period Mark Garside continued his early season goal scoring form, and perhaps hinted at an improving powerplay, notching the game tying goal at just 6 minutes into the final period. Despite outshooting the Devils by 49-28, the Giants couldn't find a further goal in regular or overtime and for the 2nd time in three games penalty shots were to be the answer to separate the Giants from their opponents.

After the first round of three shots the teams could still not be separated with nobody finding the net and the penalties went to sudden death. Benoit Doucet scored meaning Scott MacRae had to beat Stephen Murphy, which he was unable to do, Murphy coming up with a fine save to give the Giants a four point weekend, which somewhat made up for that dropped point in the previous week's home opener.

Next week sees the Edinburgh Capitals visit Belfast for the first time, with the return of Nathan Craze in goal. Edinburgh have gone down a different route signing many European players this season, so will be a different proposition for the Giants. This is followed by a Sunday evening trip to Dundee.

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