Giants split Pre-season Honours with Panthers

Posted on Sunday, August 28th, 2011 at 6:51 pm

Having taken first blood with a 2-1 victory in the opening leg of “Hockeyfest” the Belfast Giants were to split the series after falling 4-2 to the Nottingham Panthers on Sunday night.

Both sides traded chances in the first period and it seemed like the game could go either way however neither side were able to break the deadlock. Having already found a place in fans hearts with a 2 goal performance on Saturday night, Adam Keefe made the Odyssey faithful smile once again, this time sticking up for Robert Dowd. After making a hit on Marc Levers,  Dowd received attention from Panthers tough guy Guy Lepine. Making sure the young Brit would not be man handled, Keefe stepped in to even the score, picking up a 2 minute roughing penalty for his troubles.

It would be the Panthers who were to break the duck when Steve Lee sniped a wrister top right on the powerplay. The Giants answered right back just a few seconds later only for the goal to be waived off by referee Michael Hicks.

The Panthers then doubled their advantage when Matthew Myers won a faceoff in the Giants zone back to David Clarke who released a one –timer past Stephen Murphy from the hash marks.

The Giants then got one back when Robert Dowd converted on a 4on3 powerplay. Having moved the puck well in the Panthers zone, Brock McBride’s shot was rebounded by Dan Green into the slot where after a scuffle Rob Dowd won the puck and managed to pull the puck onto his backhand to pull the score back to 2-1.

This was to be short lived however has David Clarke once again released a slapshot, this time from the top of the circle, beating Stephen Murphy through his five-hole to give the Panthers 3-1 going into the second break.

With the result seemingly in the bag, both sides took advantage of exhibition game conditions and gave their backup netminders the opportunity for some ice-time.

Both netminders put in a good showing, each conceding just one goal with Scott Champange beating Dickson blocker side and Jeremy Rebek dekeing the Panthers backup to finish the scoring at 4-2.