Plus c'a change, plus c'est le meme chose...

Excuse the french, but I think that is how the saying goes. In front of an almost sellout Odyssey crowd, the Coors Belfast Giants finished the season exactly as they started. A lot of huff and puff, but nothing substantial enough to blow the Blazes house down, until the third period.

The Giants started the game at a high tempo, and with plenty of pressure on the newly crowned champions and their back-up goalie Steve Fone. But, as usual, it was the away team who scored first, and on a powerplay, with Barrie Moore pouncing on a pass from Michael Tasker. The second period came and went with little of note, apart from the Giants failing to score on yet another powerplay. And although the Giants had outshot the Coventry Blaze by 27 to 8 by the end of the second period, the vast majority of the shots were straight at Fone, with little really testing him or the Blaze defence.

As we have come to expect, the Giants have been third period wonders this year, and this game was to be no different. After a tremendous amount of hard work by the Giants third line, the other two lines decided to come alive, and with barely two minutes gone, George Awada scored the equalising goal, with helpers going to a slightly off-form Ed Courtenay and Mark Dutiame. Jeff Hutchins also finally remembered who he was playing for, and scored two much needed goals against his former club in the space of four minutes. The evergreen Jason Ruff netted the Giants final goal with just over ten minutes left to play, and apart from a boarding penalty against Roman Gavalier, the remainder of the game drew to a close without either team exerting themselves much further.

The Coors Belfast Giants final home game this season, and possibly the last chance to ever watch Todd Kelman play, is on Saturday 31st March at 7.00pm.

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