Devil May Care!

The Belfast Giants have had some thrilling games over the season, but they usually fall far apart. The Giants fans were spoiled tonight with their second top drawer game in as many nights. The Cardiff Devils have always been renouned for bringing out the best of the Giants players and fans, tonight they got their moneys worth.

The Giants were hoping to keep the pressure on the Coventry Blaze in the fight for the title, any slip up would hand the Elite League Championship to the Blaze.

The Giants started their job well, on 10 minutes, Curtis Huppe latching on to a pass from Tony Hand to opening the scoring. However with only 40 seconds remiaining, a mistake by George Awada allowed the Devils Russ Romaniuk to set up Jon Cullen to level up the scores as they headed into the second.

An actionpacked second ensued. Huppe gained his second of the night to put the Giants 2-1 up. But less than a minute later the Odyssey crowd witnessed something quite amazing. A SLAPSHOT from Mel Angelstad, took a hit off a Devils defenseman. The puck went 30ft up in the air, it fell behind the Devils netminder and into the back of the net! Angelstad making up for his early departure the previous night, while the rest of the players still looked in the air for the puck!

The Giants seemed to be on a roll, despite a flurry of four shots on goal which didnâ??t produce a score. It was Diarmuid Kelly who made it 4-1, an assist by Huppe gave him his 3rd point of the night.

The goal wasnâ??t the last action of the period. In what some described as one of the best fights of the season, Marc Levers took Devils goal scorer Jon Cullen to school and the Giants ended the period much the stonger team.

If the Giants could have produced a performance like this 6 days earlier against the Sheffield Steelers, maybe the current league standings would be more in Belfast favour. In the meantime the Giants were keeping the pressure on the Devils, a goal from Curt Bowen, assisted again by Tony Hand, made the Giants lead even stronger. 5-1 and the Devils looked out of touch.

Itâ??s customary for the fans to be quite vocal in the Odyssey Arena, not only to instill fear in the visiting team, but also to boost their teams morale! And usually when the crowd chant â??Bring on McGimpseyâ?? theyâ??d like to think that Tony Hand listens, tonight he obliged and the local lad hit the ice to finish off the final period.

The Devils pulled one back through Hill however it was not the start of a fight back. The Giants romped out 5-2 winners! The pressure is on the Coventry Blaze not to slip up. The Giants travel to Sheffield on Sunday hoping to keep the form going.

Tonight the Giants sent a message to the Blaze.... If you slip up.... weâ??ll be there!!

Patrick Smyth