Giants in Stainless Steelers Stalemate

The Coors Belfast Giants continued their long road trip with a visit to the Hallam FM Arena to take on the new look Sheffield Steelers. Sheffield have gained a few new additions in the wake of the signings of Dave Whistle and Dennis Maxwell to the coaching positions and they were looking to pick up their first win against the Giants and make up for the heavy loss to the Nottingham Panthers on Friday night. Giants player/coach Ed Courtenay was hoping the team would gain another 2 points following the win against the Bison the previous night.

In an end to end game the Steelers played with more passion than in the previous encounter at the “House of Steel”, but it was the Giants who took the early lead. Captain George Awada scored the first goal and Theo Fluery, in a Man of the Match performance, give the Giants a 2-0 lead. But the Steelers didn’t give up and in a game where referee Andy Carson called everything that dropped, they capitalised on their powerplay opportunites and pulled the score back to 2-1 through Mark Dutiaume by the end of the 2nd period.

It seemed that the Giants were constantly penalty killing in the second period and at one point did well to stave off a 5 on 3. But in the final session the Steelers did manage to pull level, with Mike Peron scoring the equalising goal and setting up a storming finish to a great game.

In a hectic final period it was the Steelers who nearly stole both points on the final shot of the regulation time. However Mike Minard pulled off an amazing save from Andrew Luciuk to force overtime.

Neither team were able to take advantage and the Giants had to settle for 3 points from 4 this weekend. They might be disappointed tonight that they threw away a 2 goal lead, however on a long road trip a 75% points haul is one coach Courtenay would be very happy with.

The Giants now move on to Edinburgh for a back to back match-up in the Murrayfield arena. There is a large travelling support expected in the Scottish capital hoping to see the league leaders gain 4 points over the team currently propping up the table.

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