Posted on Saturday, December 3rd, 2011 at 11:33 pm
The Stena Line Belfast Giants, bolstered by the addition of sniper Brock McBride recorded a 5-1 victory over the Hull Stingrays with McBride netting 2 goals on his return to the Giants lineup.
Against the run of play in the first period it was the Stingrays who got on the board first as player coach Sylvain Cloutier tipped home a point shot from Kurtis Dulle on the powerplay to propel the visitors into the lead at 7.27. The Stingrays lead was however short lived as McBride netted his first of the evening at 9.00 to level the scores at 1-1 and this is how it remained going into the first intermission.
From this point on it was all Giants with the home team heavily outshooting the visitors, more than doubling the shot count at the end of the game.
No less than 5 fighting majors were assessed by referee Dean Smith, the first of which came at 23.56 as Aaron Clarke and Matt Davies exchanged blows following a melee on the ice involving a number of players.
Giants captain Jeremy Rebek put his team in front just after the mid way point chipping in with a powerplay goal from only a few inches out which turned out to be the only goal of the second period and the eventual game winner.
In the 3rd the Giants put some daylight between the teams as Aaron Clarke netted his 3rd of the year with yet another powerplay goal before McBride scored his second to make it 4-1.
Gareth Roberts was in the right place at the right time to round off the scoring as he fired past Boucher to record his first of the season and the Giants 5th goal of the evening, good enough for a convincing win in front of the home fans and a well deserved 2 points ahead of tomorrow nights clash with Cardiff.
© 2008 Belfast Giants Limited, unless otherwise stated. Imagery © Michael Cooper Photography.
