Honours Even As Vipers Comeback Forces 2-2 Tie

Posted on Friday, October 2nd, 2009 at 10:15 pm

Dispite having a two goal lead provided by a brace from Pat Bateman the LBM Belfast Giants couldnt hold off the Newcastle Vipers in their Challenge Cup Group A game tonight at the Odyssey Arena.

The Giants got off the mark in the first minute of the game forcing the Newcastle Vipers defence into an early error. The Giants immediately got the puck deep in the Vipers end and started to work a cycle, resulting in Pat Bateman finding himself in space at the back post to fire the Giants into an early lead after just 51 seconds.

After the first intermission the Giants again came out of the blocks hard. Robinson was called on with a number of shots that he managed to successfully turn away before Pat Bateman added his second of the night at 33.18 and it looked as if the Giants were about to turn the screw and put the Vipers to bed, however the Vipers players had other ideas.

The score had barely ticked over on the scoreboard when at 36.20, Newcastles Michael Berry latched onto a loose puck on the Giants blue line and slapped it through a crown to reduce the deficit to one going into the period break.

In the third period the play from both teams was sloppy and there were a lot neutral zone turnovers resulting in chances for either side. The Giants again rained in shots on Robinson”’’s goal, and against the run of play the Vipers tied the game up with just over 10 minutes remaining.

Stephen Murphy was sprawled out on the ice after making the initial save and sending the puck to the relative safety of the corner, when Jason Tejchma banked the puck from behind the goal line off a Giants defenseman into the open net bringing the Vipers back into the game. After 60 minutes the teams skated off sharing the points occupying 1st and 2nd spot in the Challenge Cup table respectively.