Giants Notch Shootout Win In Braehead

Posted on Saturday, January 28th, 2012 at 12:38 pm

The Stena Line Belfast Giants got back to winning ways in the Elite League on Friday Night as they squeezed out a win in Braehead over the Clan. After an opening 20 minutes of action where the Giants out shot the Clan 13 to 3, the game still remained scoreless although the Giants clearly had the better scoring opportunities. The Giants eventually got one by Jakko Suomalainen in net for Braehead just over 3 minutes into the second period when in form Giant Aaron Clarke opened the scoring with Robert Dowd picking up the lone assist.

The Clan pulled one back on the powerplay at 8:50 of the second period when player/coach Drew Bannister fired one past Stephen Murphy to make it 1-1. The Clan goal came on the powerplay with George Awada in the box for hooking. Referee Moray Hanson really let these two teams fight it out on the ice and didn’t let special teams play much of a part in this game, calling only 4 penalties the entire night – 3 on the Giants and 1 on the Clan. The second period finished with the game tied at one a piece with the Giants continuing to outshoot the home side by a total of 27 to 8.

The third period seemed to see the Clan come alive as they hit the ice flying and finally bettered the Giants on the shot count, firing 10 shots at Murphy in the third period alone and picking up a goal along the way. Newest signing right winger Mike Wirll scored his first goal of the season for the Clan to put them in front 2-1 with just over 14 minutes remaining in the game, but the Giants newest signing Paul Deniset got his first of the season to tie the game 2-2 at just two minutes later.

The final 10 minutes of the game saw end to end action with huge stops at both ends of the ice from Murphy and Suomalainen. With 11 seconds remaining the puck got played across the face of the Giants goal and with an open net in front of him it looked as though Jordan Krestanovich was going to hit home the game winner, somehow he managed to put it straight into the body of a sprawling Murphy and the chance was lost and the clock ticked down to 0:00 with the score still 2-2.

Into overtime and neither team could break the deadlock and the game was decided by a penalty shootout. After both teams had taken two penalty shots with neither of them finding the net. Both teams then scored twice before Dowd with his second attempt netted the game winner and Wirll missed his for the Giants to pick up the extra point.