A Fistful Of Victories

The Giants came into this midweek game, moved to Wednesday night to allow for Sky Sports coverage, on the back of their best ever start to a season with 4 wins from 4 games played, and plenty of goals notched up already.

It was the Basingtoke Bison however who started the brighter as Belfast failed to test Kevin Reither in the Bison goal who only arrived in the UK today after Visa problems. The Bison looked composed early on without really threatening, and Stevie Lyle had to be alert to turn away a couple of decent chances.

After the Giants killed off an early penalty, referee Nigel Boniface soon gave the home side a powerplay chance, and continuing to show how lethal it has been in the early going, Bobby Robins fired home a great shot from a tight angle at 4.54 to give the Giants a 1-0 lead.

Despite then having the better of the play, it took until 16.41 of the period when Shane Johnson found himself all alone in the slot and with a fake shot then big slap shot he beat Reiter from 20 feet out to make it 2-0, which was how the period ended.

The Giants continued to pressure in the second but couldn't find a way past Reiter who was facing a lot of rubber - 16 shots in the first period. However despite managing to turn one of the many shots away, Colin Shields was in prime position after 25.08 to force a rebound under Reiter on the backhand to make it 3-0.

The impressive Graeme Walton blotted his book when taking a needless interfeence call which allowed the Bison to pull one back soon after, Brad Cruickshank taking advantage and sneaking the puck past Stevie Lyle despite his stacked pad save attempt to cut the deficit to 3-1.

The lethal Giants powerplay came to the party once more, when Tyler Howells (pictured) opened his goal account for the Giants with a somewhat fortunate goal 34.24 into the game. His big slapshot was not dealt with well at all by debutant Reiter who let it slip under his right pad - a shot he really should have saved and a surprise to HOwells who barely celebrated. And from the re-start face off, the Giants added anothr goal just 21 seconds later when Paul Deniset took George Awada's pass and made it 5-1 to end the second period.

The Giants came out flat for the start of the 3rd, perhaps thinking the game was won and were kicked back to life by an early double strike by the Bison. First Ross Bowers somehow snuck one home past Stevie Lyle from a very acute angle only 1.26 into the period and Brad Cruikshank added his second 40 seconds later to cut the deficit to just 5-3 and swing the momentum the way of the Bison with stil a long 17 minutes to play.

Any worries the small but vocal home crowd may have had were quickly dispelled as the Giants picked up the tempo again . First Bobby Robins had the puck in the net but the goal was washed out due to the keeper having made the inital save with his face mask. Brad Cruickshank's reaction to Robins playing a rebound after the whistle was not the most friendly exchange of views of the evening and resulted in 2 minutes for roughing. Once more the Giants went to the powerplay and once more the PP unit was successful. Colin Shileds found Tyler Howells who unleashed another shot from the blueline and this time there was no doubt as the puck went through a well worked screen provided by George Awada and found the top corner to make it 6-3 and a fistful of wins from the Giants to start the season.

Aaron Kernohan

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