LBM Belfast Giants V Edinburgh Capitals TONIGHT!

Posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 1:01 am

The LBM Belfast Giants take on their Scottish rivals on Friday Night at the Odyssey Arena. The Giants are coming off of a weekend against the Stingrays where they took 3 out of 4 points, dropping the extra point in Hull on Sunday Night in a shoot-out. That extra point proved vital, as it kept the Giants out of a tie with the Coventry Blaze for first place. Friday night is the fourth encounter between the Giants and the Caps this season, with the Giants winning all three games so far.

Last time the Caps were in town, the Giants dominated them by a scoreline of 4-0 with defenceman Tom Walsh grabbing his first 2 goals of the season and adding an assist on his way to a man of the match performance for the Giants, while Nathan Craze earned the shut out victory with a 24 save effort, his first blank sheet of the season.

The Giants leading scorer is Colin Shields, who leads the league in both goals scored (20) and overall points (45) in 27 games. Brandon Benedict is hot on the heels of Shields, with 38 points, including a league leading 27 assists so far this season while linemate Jeffrey Szwez has scored 13 goals in 13 games for the Giants in his first season in the Elite League.

Goaltender Stephen Murphy leads all goaltenders in every statistical category possible. He has a league best 93.5% save rate, a 2.00 goals against average and a league leading 4 shutouts this season. His counterpart on the Capitals is Cody Rudkowsky who has an impressive save rate himself at 90.1%. Rudkowsky is the great equalizer for the Caps, who rely on their big netminder to keep them close every single night.

Upfront the Caps have some serious scoring punch in both Simon Lambert and Owen Fussey. Lambert leads the team with 31 points in 21 games, while Fussey has a team high 15 goals so far. Former Giant Jeff Hutchins is now a Capital after a brief stint with the Sheffield Steelers and he is already proving his worth with 15 points in his first 13 games.

INJURY UPDATE
The Giants are still without Pierre-Luc Faubert for at least three more weeks, and of course George Awada who is still listed as out for the season, although there is some hope that he could return in mid-Febraury if his sholder responds to the post-surgery therapy. The good news is that Mark Morrison is back in the line up after eight weeks on the sidelines. The Mo Train has had a frustrating start to the season, picking up the injury in early October. He has fully recovered and is looking forward to getting back into the games.

McMORROW UPDATE
Sean ‘The Sheriff’ McMorrow returns to the lineup after playing a total of about 1 minute last weekend. He was suspended for the home match against Hull and got thrown out in the first period of Sunday night’s game against the Stingrays. He is raring to go on Friday Night.