Gordie Who?

A "Gordie Howe hat-trick", is when a player scores a goal, gets an assist, and also has a fight. Is there a name for when a player has two fights, scores three goals and gets four assists? Well that was how the pocket dynamo called Theo Fleury announced his return to pro ice-hockey in Coors Belfast Giants colours tonight.

It would be hard not to get carried away with all the Fleury-mania, but when he stepped onto the ice, to a thunderous welcome, and scored two goals from his first two shifts, you just had to be impressed. Tonights game against the Edinburgh Capitals would have been seen by some as an easy win, and certainly when Fleury put the Giants two goals up within four minutes, one had to wonder just how many the Giants would score. But, credit to the Capitals they managed to pull one goal back on nine minutes with a neat finish from Capitals MoM Travis Lisabeth.

It took only thirteen seconds for the Giants to restore the two goal lead however, with Ed Courtenay scoring from Fleury. Four minutes later and Fleury combined again with Courtenay to set up Steve O'Brien for his first goal as a Giant.

The second period will be one that the travelling Capitals fans will want to forget in a hurry. With their team struggling to form any kind of offense, the Coors Belfast Giants went on a goal spree. Shawn Skiehar scored his first goal as a Giant two minutes in, and followed it up one minute later, with his second goal as a Giant. In a rare offensive moment, the Capitals managed to nab a goal, with Lisabeth and Capitals player/coach Tony Hand setting up Martin Cingel on twenty four minutes.

The rest of the period was all one way traffic with the Giants scoring four more times. Todd Kelman scoring from some neat Fleury and Courtenay play, and then three minutes later, Curtis Huppe was the benefactor again from Fleury and Courtenay. Todd "Killer" Kelman returned the compliment to Fleury three minutes later as the former NHL star bagged his hat-trick.

While most of the talk for the past week has been about Fleury, the local guys were proving they were no slouches as Mark Morrison scored the Giants tenth goal of the game.

As the final period rolled out many thought the game was over, the average performance of the player forced coach Courtenay to put the no-name Fleury onto the thirdline, and here Fleury proved to be the ultimate showman.

Despite only scoring a single goal in the final session, courtesy of Jason Ruff, the only goal scored by the top line in the entire game, the entertainment value of the game never dropped as Fleury took it upon himself to delight the crowd.

If his 7 game points were not enough, his brawl wth Capitals Enforcer Fredrick Oduya gave both the fans, and Oduya, enough to realise that this ex-NHLer is not one to be messed with. As he skated to the penalty box he raised his arms to the crowd to let them know he means business. And for almost he entire time in the box, he shouted at Oduya to make sure he knew too!

Upon leaving the box following his roughing penalty, he again made sure Oduya knew the score, mouthing to both him and the Capitals bench. And as the period continued Theo made sure he was in the thick of the action as far as the roughing was concerned.

So when Curtis Huppe had his helmet ripped off him in a minor melee at centre ice, Fleury threw two punches at the Capitals player holding him to restrain his input... and all hell broke loose. Fleury was piled on top of by Capitals players as a brawl ensued. Unsurprisingly Theo was able to crawl from under the pile and skate away, much to the amusement of the crowd.

Jason Bowen was kicked from the game for "Leaving the Bench" to defend his team-mate and Capitals Fredrick Oduya was sent back down the tunnel for "spearing". Despite the demolition of a score line, Theo was managing to keep the Giants fans on the edge of their seat wondering what he was going to do next.

As the final buzzer sounded, the Giants ran out unsurprising winners. A couple of Capitals players headed down the tunnel, not wanting to join the handshake or perhaps embarrassed at the scoreline. But most Giants fans didnt care or notice. The night belonged to the new local hero, the "pocket dynamo", Theo Fleury.

Giants fans could be forgiven for hoping for more of the same as the Coors Belfast Giants travel to Cardiff today. The Devils should provide a tougher nut to crack than the Edinburgh Capitals however.

KotG can also confirm that Sports Broadcaster of the Year Nigel Ringland will be providing live updates in the chatroom as tonights game progresses.

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