Posted on Saturday, October 20th, 2012 at 10:08 pm
The Stena Line Belfast Giants fell to their heaviest defeat of the season at the hands of the Landshut Cannibals who skated off 7-1 winners in the second game of the Group B, Continental Cup second round in Landshut, Germany.
The Giants high in confidence after yesterdays 11-1 victory over the Dutch Champions fell behind early on in the opening period and penalty trouble in the opening 20 minutes led to 3 goals without reply put the host team firmly in control. Darryl Lloyd was the first Giants player to be penalised and at the end of the resulting poser play Landshut got on the board through Cody Thornton.
Despite Fournier and Keefe also spending time in the penalty box the Giants created some scoring chances. Most notably Mark Garside struck the post whilst shorthanded, narrowly missing an opportunity to tie things up, but it was to be the German team that were to score next as Peter Abstreiter latched on to a high clearance and slotting past Murphy to double the Cannibals lead at 16:42.
Before the end of the period Abstreiter tallied his second and Landshut’s third converting a pass from Max Brandl. David Phillips stepped in to make a huge hit on the Cannibals blue line and the puck landed fortunately with a Landshut player, creating an odd man rush.
In the second period the Giants needed to come out flying and everyone on the Giants bench thought they had the perfect start as Andrew Fournier’s wrap around attempt seemed to cross the line, however the goal was waved off by the Austrian referee and the Giants were still in search of their first goal.
As the Giants piled on the offensive pressure they were left vulnerable at the back end and Landshut struck again to make it 4-0 with Stephan Kronthaler getting his name on the score sheet having latched on to a loose puck and firing a blistering snapshot into the top corner. Bill Trew made it 5-0 and then the Giants finally got rewarded for their efforts as Scott Champagne netted the team lone tally to reduce the deficit to 4 goals.
Champagne’s strike gave the Giants a glimmer of optimism and once again the guys came out flying at the beginning of the period and were again playing with intensity and creating chances. Rycroft, Clarke and Stewart all had some fantastic scoring opportunities but it was again Landshut who were to be celebrating as Martin Davidek latched on to a loose rebound to make it 6-1.
Thomas Brandl latched on to a pass from his brother to complete the scoring and inflict a massive dent in the Giants hopes of progression to the next round of the competition.
Tomorrow the Giants take on Romanian Champions HSC Csikszreda who are still looking for their first win with the game facing off at 2PM local time (1PM Northern Ireland)
