Peacock’s Top Shelf Snipe Sinks Braehead

Posted on Saturday, November 26th, 2011 at 10:52 pm

The Stena Line Belfast Giants immerged the victors in tonight’s Clash with the Braehead Clan with Craig Peacock netting the game winning goal to edge the home team in front with less than 3 minutes remaining in the 3^rd period.

The win not only keeps the Giants at the top of the Elite League standings but propels them to the top of Challenge Cup Group A, ensuring our place in the semi-finals of the competition.

Brock McPherson opened the scoring firing past Murphy at 12.27 to put the visitors in front however they lead was short lived as Jeff Mason tallied for the Giants less than 2 minutes later to level the scores.

A goal from Benoit Doucet at 26.14 on the powerplay put the Giants back in front but this was quickly cancelled out as Matt Haywood tied the game up at 26.56.

Following Doucet’s much talked about hit against Braehead earlier in the season he was the focus of some unwanted attention for most of the evening but despite this chipped in with his second goal of the game regaining the lead for the Giants at 28.03.

The next shift as Doucet was making his way off the ice the Giants forward was met by Sam Zajac (the player involved in the incident in Braehead) and was pushed into the boards as he was about to change.

The two players squared up before Ryan Crane intervened, coming in to help Doucet who is not noted for fighting. Straight away a melee broke out with all the players on the ice becoming involved finishing up with Zajac and Doucet being wrestled to the ice by the officials.

From the resulting penalties Crane was assessed 2 minutes for roughing, with Doucet and Zajac each getting fighting majors with Doucet picking up and additional 2 minutes for illegal equipment as the fight strap on his jersey wasn’t tied down.

The physicality then picked up for the remainder of the game with the Giants forwards finishing their hits on the forecheck to the delight of the fans in the arena.

Against the run of play the Clan netted again to level the score as McPherson chipped in with his second goal of the game as he fired home at 47.00. The Clan then went on a 5 on 3 powerplay and ex-Giant Mike Bayrack gave the visitors the go ahead goal at 52.06.

A high energy shift from the Giants quickly has the Clan on the back foot as Darryl Lloyd drilled Kevin Phillips, Adam Keefe layed a hard hit on player coach Drew Bannister and Jon Pelle leveled Wedderburn only to be assessed a 2 minute penalty for boarding.

The Giants were pinned in their own zone for the majority of the powerplay but as Pelle was released from the penalty box Jeremy Rebek boomed a pass the length of the ice finding Pelle who smashed a slap shot between the legs of Suomalainen to level the scores.

At this stage, it was anyone’s game and it was the home side that made it count as Craig Peacock put the Giants in front at 57.50 with one of the nicest goals you will see at the Odyssey Arena this season. Peacock streked into the zone rounding the Clan defenseman and launched a backhand shot into the top corner to make it 5-4. With time ticking down and the goaltender off for the extra man the visitors gave up an empty net goal scored by Mark Garside at 59.04 to end the scoring on the night.