Posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Giants netminder Stephen Murphy stopped 31 of 33 shots he faced as the LBM Belfast Giants rolled over the Edinburgh Capitals in their first match in the defence of the Challenge Cup Competition. Led by heroics in net by an acrobatic Murphy who picked up his third man of the match award in three games, the Giants were clinical in this 6-2 victory over their Scottish rivals.
It only took the Giants 34 seconds to open the scoring when Craig Peacock converted on the first rush of the game into the Caps zone. The Caps evened the scoreline at the 8:34 mark of the first period but before the first frame was out, the Giants had put themselves comfortably in the lead thanks to goals from Shane Johnson and Evan Cheverie in the dying minutes of the first.
The second period again saw the Giants score in the opening minute, courtesy of Pierre-Luc Faubert who added a second goal at the 30 minute mark followed by Pat Bateman at 32:55 to give the Giants a 6-1 lead with nearly half the game still to play.
Onto the third period and again there was a goal in the opening minute, this time from the Caps Owen Fussey who made it 6-2, but that was as close as Edinburgh would get in front of a large home crowd that were there to see the final day of the Gardiner Cup competition.
This weekend, the Giants continue their defence of the Challenge Cup when they face the Newcastle Vipers at the Odyssey Arena on Friday Night. Face off is 7:30pm.
© 2008 Belfast Giants Limited, unless otherwise stated. Imagery © Michael Cooper Photography.
