Shaken But Not Stirred.

Orders are being taken now by the Eastern Health and Social Services Board for an extra 3,000 defibrillators and various other heart monitoring machines from the Coors Belfast Giants. In a match somewhat reminiscent of "that Cardiff game", the Giants incredibly managed to battle their way back from being almost down and out to emerge valiant winners!

It was a first period that the Giants will want to forget in a hurry though. The Basingstoke Bison were quick to capitalise on a double minor penalty to George Awada, scoring twice, and then they added another goal shortly after for a three-goal lead with barely fifteen minutes registered on the clock. This, from a team that the Giants have completely dominated this season! Thankfully, on a powerplay to the Giants, and with the clock ticking down on the opening period, Jason Bowen managed to tip in a pass from Todd Kelman to give the Giants some glimmer of hope that a comeback would be possible.

Sadly not all of the Giants powerplays are so successful, and while quarterbacking the play on a powerplay early in the second period, Theo Fleury somehow coughed the puck up at the blue line, gifting it straight to a Bison player who skated in and made no mistake on finishing past the stranded Mike Minard. The Giants were again three goals down. For the majority of the rest of the period it was all about Giants pressure, pipes being struck and so many chances that were harder to miss than hit. The unstoppable force that is Captain George Awada managed to reduce the decifit to two goals with just three minutes left to again give the Belfast Giants some hope. The Giants also had two "goals" disallowed, the first "goal" was due to the red light coming on when the puck had actually landed on the net which initially caused much confusion, and the second was due to Awada tapping the puck in just after the ref had blown the whistle.

The third period was a continuance of the second, on countless occasions the Giants pulled apart the Bison defence only to miss a wide open net, or for the puck to slide agonisingly by the post. With ten minutes gone it looked like the Giants were going to lose yet another home league game. However the comeback began with a goal from Curtis Huppe with Theo Fleury getting his second assist of the game. The atmosphere in the Odyssey at this point was electric with the crowd cheering to the rafters. And herein lies the enigma that is Theo Fleury. Having a slightly below par game, in spite of the assists, he somehow pulls the strings to assist in Ed Courtenay's goal which drew the game level, and then he conjures up a magnificent game winning goal with just over five minutes left in the final period.

With just over a minute and a half left in the game, Basingstoke goalie/coach Mark "Bernie" Bernard raced to the bench to give the Bison the extra outskater. It was to no avail as Fleury won the face-off, the Giants controlled the play, and George Awada was able to slot home the empty-netter, sealing the win and the points.

In relation to the crowd reaction and their help in boosting the team this evening, when asked to comment, Theo Fleury stated that he had "played in Stanley Cup Finals with less atmosphere".

The Coors Belfast Giants next face the Coventry Blaze in a game that most genuine hockey fans hope will pass with more comment about on-ice issues than off-ice issues. Faceoff is today at 18.00.

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