Goal Fest In Hull Gives Giants a Four Point Weekend…

Posted on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 10:47 am

The LBM Belfast Giants made it a weekend double with an 8-2 drubbing of the Stingrays in Hull on Sunday Night. A hat-trick from Colin Shields and four assists from Brandon Benedict highlighted a dominating performance for the Giants as they crept up into second spot in the Elite League, just a point behind the Nottingham Panthers, who they will face here in Belfast on Saturday Night.

Hat-trick hero Colin Shields, who now leads the Elite League in scoring summed up the weekend of action for the Giants.

“We needed a weekend like this, two games where everyone that needed to get their confidence back managed to do just that. 17 goals in two games is impressive by any standard and although Edinburgh and Hull might both have been missing key guys, it doesn’t take away from the fact that we are finally putting the puck in the net on a regular basis.”

Coach Steve Thornton echoed the words of Shields, describing the weekend as “exactly what we needed right now.”

“I am happy for the guys, particularly the ones that maybe have been underperforming by their own standards so far this season. It is tough coming to a new team, especially with so many new guys that you need to get used to playing with. This weekend gave us the confidence we need to take the next step. We are now in second place and we have a chance to beat the top team in the league this weekend when Nottingham come to town.”

Nottingham have been the best team in the Elite League so far this season, and have beaten the Giants both times they have faced each other this season.

“They are the team to beat right now and for good reason. They have a great team and we will need our best effort of the season to take points off of them, but I would rather have a weekend like this before we play them than one where we struggled to put the puck in the net. We expect an intense week of practice and we have a new player coming in on Tuesday who should lift the team a bit. I am really looking forward to Saturday and seeing how we follow up these two wins.”

The 17 goals scored over the two games for the Giants has propelled two of the Giants to the top of the scoring charts in the league. Colin Shields leads the league in goals with 13 goals in 14 games and his 22 points have him tied for the league lead with fellow Giant Evan Cheverie and Nottingham’s Jade Galbraith. Another Giant, Pat Bateman is second in the league goal scoring race behind Shields with 10 goals in 14 games.