Giants Capitalise On Lacklustre Edinburgh Performance

Posted on Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 10:35 pm

11 Goals, 3 Fights and 2 points saw the LBM Belfast Giants move to the top of the Challange Cup Group A standings. Having taken an early hold on the game the Giants didn’t let off the gas defeating the Edinburgh Captials 9-2 on Friday night.

The Giants came out of the gate flying tonight and quickly notched two early goals inside the opening minute of the game. Piere Luc Faubert burst to the goal to net the first for the Giants on a play deriving from the opening face-off. Evan Cheverie started things off getting the puck down the right wing side to Pat Bateman who found the oncoming Faubert bursting to the net to guide the puck past Capitals netminders Cody Rudtowsky.

Rudtowsky had barely picked the puck out of the back of the net before the Giants were on the offensive again. This time Brandon Benedict was the provider as Colin Shields shot a wrister from the top of the right circle that crept inside the post to set the Giants well on their way.

At 4:54 Neil Hay was assessed a 2 minute penalty for holding the stick of Giants defenseman Tim Cook and this gave the home side their first powerplay opportunity of the evening. The Giants powerplay that has not been the most productive recently made sure they capitalised on the opportunity and it was almost like déjà-vu when Faubert netted his second of the evening with Bateman and Cheverie again credited for the helpers.

Craig Peacock returned to the Giants lineup after resting up an injury and added the Giants 4th at 11:18. Some tape to tape passing from Shields and Benedict created the space for Peacock who walked in unchallenged in the slot and picked his spot with a hard wrist shot giving Rudtowsky no chance in the Caps goal.

Just when everything seemed to be going the Giants way and everyone was expecting them to put the game to bed the Capitals started somewhat of a comeback. Shane Johnson sat 2 minutes for elbowing and he was joined moments later by Colin Shields when his hit on defenseman Chris Allan was judged to be a trip giving the Capitals a 5on3 powerplay opportunity. With Johnson coming out of the box and rejoining the play momentarily the Capitals opened their account through Owen Fussey.

Chris Allan then managed to slip the puck past Stephen Murphy to bring the Capitals to within 2, but it was the Giants who finished the first period off with the momentum killing off any hopes of an Edinburgh revival. Colin Shields tallied his second of the night with one tick left on the clock and the teams retired to the locker room with the Giants comfortably leading 5-2.

The second period was a totally different game but none the less exciting with both teams accumulating 26 minutes in penalties. Bateman contributed his third point of the game when he scored at 28:51 on an assist from Graeme Walton and at 38:18 Brandon Benedict cut in from the right wing side to shelf the puck high glove side giving the Giants a 7-2 cushion.

At this point the Capitals heads were beginning to drop and the tired legs were beginning to show the importance of having depth on the bench. As Pat Bateman cut across the front of the Capitals crease he was deliberately tripped by netminder Cody Rudtowsky. Bateman took exception to this and dropped the gloves, giving Rudtowsky little to no choice in whether he wished to fight or not.

With blood on the ice and only 25 seconds on the clock referee Marco Coenan decided to being out the Zamboni and play the remaining time after the intermission. The Capitals netminders Rudtowsky was unable to continue which opened the door for Northern Ireland born netminders Andrew Dickson to take over the goaltending duties for the remaining 20mins. In turn the Giants replaced Murphy with Nathan Craze and the teams took to the ice to play out the remaining 25 seconds.

As the puck dropped Andrew Sharp took off his helmet and dropped the gloves calling Sean McMorrow out to centre ice. McMorrow duly obliged and the two went toe to toe, McMorrow emerging the victor skating to the penalty box and pumping the Odyssey crowd up in the process.

With the 3rd period finally underway Craig Peacock bagged his 2nd and the Giants 8th, assists going to Evan Cheverie and Michael Jacobsen. McMorrow was again throwing punches at 58:43 when he and Chris Allan had somewhat of a disagreement in front of the Capitals net. Both men served coincidental penalties for Roughing and Cross Checking and with the clock ticking down neither would see any further action in the game.

In the closing seconds Piere Luc Faubert streaked down the right wing side and fired a laser through Dickson to complete his hat trick and ensure the Giants kept their grasp on top spot in the Challenge Cup Standings.