What A Difference A Week Makes.

Just one weekend ago, the Belfast Giants suffered what many would call the single worst defeat in their history the night after losing an away game to bottom feeders Hull Stingrays. Less than one week later, the table topping Nottingham Panthers skated into town for a Friday/Saturday double header, accompanied by in excess of 500 fans.

Those away fans, accompanied on Friday night by many primary school kids from across Northern Ireland had the Odyssey buzzing long before face off. How would the Giants respond to the pressure? In a week when the team had been pushed hard by “embarrassed” coach Steve Thornton, could the team bounce back from the previous weekend’s double defeat?

The Giants came out of the gate hard on Friday and had some early pressure before the Panthers grew into the game. Despite this, a poor giveaway gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead with only 6 seconds remaining in period 1.The highly under-rated Michael Jacobsen tied it up for Belfast, scoring on a powerplay won by Sean McMorrow. The Panthers quickly regained the lead however before Pierre-Luc Faubert continues his renaissance snapping the puck home to tie the game once more at 2-2.

Into the third period and as the physical play continued to pick up with slashes and roughing behind the play, Jeff Szwez stepped up, showing his class as a big game player to notch the Giants 3rd goal on a powerplay, despite the Giants having wasted the 5 on 3 part of the advantage as Corey Neilsen returned to the ice. As the game reached its conclusion Pat Bateman tucked the puck into an empty net, giving the Giants a 4-2 lead and bringing the already standing Odyssey crowd to even higher levels of joy. There was still time however for Tim Cook to grapple with Panther Richardson, the gloves coming off, but only roughing penalties being handed out. Would this needle carry over into the next night?

Saturday night got off to a great start as George Awada put the Giants 1-0 up early on, smuggling the puck home over Kevin St-Pierre in the Panthers goal only a minute into the contest. The early lead got the crowd going once more, who were once again highly vocal despite the best efforts of the Odyssey Fun Police. The lead was short lived as McMorrow took an interference call and within 20 seconds of the powerplay the Panthers were level.

Some great play by Jeff Szwez helped the Giants regain the lead as the first period approached an end. Great control of the puck allowed him to wait while other players cleared the zone to negate offside, Szwez skated in, dropped the puck off to Colin Shields who blasted it from the circle past St-Pierre, who might be disappointed to let this one in from such a tight angle.

Not wishing to make things easy for themselves the Giants ran into penalty trouble, but with Shields and Faubert both in the box for hooking, the Giants managed to kill of a 5 on 3 and the momentum definitely began to shift their way. This momentum shift was proven as Pat Bateman found himself all alone with only St-Pierre to beat, which he did with ease putting the Giants 3-1 up at 36 minutes.

The Panthers frustrations began to grow and with the afters from the night before carrying over, as the 2nd period ended all players from both teams were on the ice and words were exchanged in a large scrum with McMorrow and Awada for the Giants and Levers and Richardson for the Panthers in particular showing their dislike of eachother.

This niggle carried into the third period, and despite there being no further scoring, it was difficult to take one’s eyes off the action. Shane Johnson, who was back to his annoying, irritating, pestering best was sent to the box along with Panther Danny Meyers for cross checking. But things finally blew up in front of the Giants net as Kevin Phillips was challenged by Jade Galbraith of the Panthers. At first it looked like Phillips would be happy just to hold on, but he came back with a massive right that knocked Galbraith’s helmet flying into the air and by the end Galbraith was the one hanging on. Once more the Odyssey crowd were on their feet cheering as Phillips went to the box.

A couple of late penalties were killed off with relative ease as time wore down and the last 2 minutes were played out to singing and dancing in the stands. Szwez had a chance at an empty net but his shot was blocked, while Shields shot whistled just wide from the neutral zone, but that was not important as the Giants claimed a 4 point weekend and gave notice that they weren’t as bad a side as had been seen the previous Sunday.

Man of the weekend was undoubtedly netminder Stepehn Murphy who kept the Panthers at bay all weekend, soaking up early pressure on Friday night allowing the Giants the chance to overturn two deficits and win, making 36 saves on 38 shots. Murphy bettered this on Saturday allowing only one goal, again on 38 shots, a truly fantastic performance.

Echoing the thoughts published by Todd Kelman, thanks to all the Panthers fans for coming over and contributing to what was a superb atmosphere and a reminder of what things could be like in a packed Odyssey Arena. Thanks also for taking home no points. Let’s hope this double-header idea can continue in future seasons.

Aaron Kernohan

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