“Being down 2-1 after the first leg of the semi final is fine for us. We know this game is for league points as well, so it doesn’t change our game plan. We don’t have to change the way we prepare because we know we just have to win the game and see where the scoreline ends up. If we were down 2 or 3 goals going into the second leg, we would be more focused on the scoreboard and the time but this is just another big game we have to win and then we will see what happens.”

Murphy faced 32 shots on goal against the Devils last week, while his counterpart in the Devils net, former Giant Stevie Lyle was the busier of the two goaltenders, facing 43 shots from the Giants. Murphy can’t see it being as busy of a night for either netminder this Saturday.

“Cardiff is a much smaller ice surface, so it seems like anything from the blueline in is a good shot. It is a very tough building to play in and they play a brand of hockey that suits their home rink. Hopefully our skilled guys can use the bigger ice in Belfast to our advantage.”

With this game counting towards the league and the Challenge Cup, there has been much debate on potential situations that could arise in the dying minutes of the game. If the Giants tie the game in regulation and win in overtime or a shootout, they do not advance to the Challenge Cup Final, but would still collect the vital 2 points in the league standings. So what does Murphy think would happen if they were tied going into the final minute of the game, would he be pulled for the extra attacker?

“I can’t answer for us, I will leave that one up to the coach. I just hope it doesn’t come to that.”

The Stena Line Belfast Giants take on the Cardiff Devils on Saturday, February 4th at 7pm. Tickets are available from the Odyssey Box Office in person or by calling (028) 9073 9074 or online by clicking on the link below:

http://www.ticketmaster.ie/Belfast-Giants-tickets/artist/30107?dcc&tm_link=edp_Artist_Image

The 6 foot 5 inch 18 stone Hoffman returns to the Giants after starting the 2011/12 season in North America. After spending the majority of this season bouncing between the Portland Pirates of the American Hockey League and the Las Vegas Wranglers of the East Coast Hockey League, he was lured back to Belfast by coach Doug Christiansen in the late hours of Wednesday night.

“Mike Hoffman has unfinished business in Belfast. Last year, he was one of our most committed players and was a leader in our dressing room. He is coming straight from the AHL and has had a good season so far. I have signed him as a forward although he can also play defense but I feel that he is more effective up front.”

“We needed a player who can help us offensively and Mike does that in different ways than most creative players. We have a number of players who can skate and be creative but we have very few who can open up room on the ice with size and physical presence, especially with the injury to Darryl Lloyd.  

“Hoffman will be effective at the net front by screening goalies and getting rebounds. We will face a lot of excellent goalies in the next two months and Hoff could block out the sun if he had to, let alone a goaltender’s vision. If we are going to accomplish our goals, we are going to have to get to the net and be difficult to play against. 

“I am very pleased with this signing. There were a lot of average players on the market who had questionable character or health. Hoffman is a great teammate and hard worker.  Our fans know that Mike gives his best every night, which will fit in with our team identity.”

Hoffman scored 10 goals and 19 assists last season in 45 games with the Giants, playing the majority of the season on defence despite starting out the season on a goal scoring streak including a hat-trick and 6 goals in his first 8 games. Hoffman led the team with 6 fights last season and was voted the “Fan Favourite” by the Giants supporters.

The Giants had the option to play a stand alone game for the semi final, but General Manager Todd Kelman had a plan when he chose to double up the games. “Our travel is harder than every other team in the league,” explained Kelman, “so we try to eliminate as many games as possible at this time of year. If we advance to the Challenge Cup Final, that will add 2 more games to an already busy schedule and last season we ended up with a log jam of games in the final month of the regular season.

“I think that at this time of year, we need to focus on cutting down training sessions, concentrating on getting rest in between games and making sure our guys are ready to play every time they hit the ice. If we added another game, it would have given us another midweek game and we just don’t need it right now. We doubled up the games last season and we won our semi final and hopefully we can do the same thing again.

“It is hard enough to beat Cardiff once, let alone twice in a 3 or 4 day period, which is what we would have had to do with the only date available to us being this Wednesday night at the Arena and with the league points being our priority, we know that this game is vital in our quest for the league title. It doesn’t make the Challenge Cup any less important, it just means that I think my guys are motivated to win the league and every game from here on in is a must win, so we want to keep that focus right now.”

Kelman is anticipating another big crowd on Saturday Night as well, something that always adds to the atmosphere of the big games at this time of year.

“From Christmas on, every game seems to be more important than the week before and our fans know when the big teams are coming to town. They want to see the Devils in Belfast because they always bring with them passion, grit and determination. You are always going to get a hard fought game at both ends of the ice when Belfast and Cardiff face off against each other. The Giants and Devils have had some memorable games over the years and Saturday will be another classic battle between two great teams.”

Get your tickets for Saturday’s game by calling the Odyssey Arena Box Office on (028) 9073 9074 or in person at the Box Office. You can also get your tickets online and print your tickets out yourself by clicking on the link below:

http://www.ticketmaster.ie/browse?category=9&tm_link=tm_sports_b_9&root=10004&dma=

Star Giants Netminder Stephen Murphy hit the road this week with the Giants Reading Programme and ended up in Lisburn Central Primary School. After great excitement by the P3 class as they checked Murphy out in his equipment (courtesy of a programme he brought along), he got down to business. Settling the class to take them through the special Giants reading book, and talking about the importance of making the best choices.

This was Stephens first visit on the Reading programme, as he is kept extra busy with the Junior Giants. You’ve got a new bunch of fans there at Lisburn Central Stephen! And from what Stephen said, it would seem that he’s a big fan of Lisburn Central too!

“I really enjoyed, the class were so welcoming and really got into it. Great children, the school and their parents must be ready proud of them.” explained Murphy. Remember P3, use your free tickets, courtesy of Tesco, very soon, so you don’t want to miss the excitement at the end of season games!

“We had red hair, orange hair, patterned dresses, wacky hair and all sorts of designs on our puppets today at Cregagh Primary. There are some very talented artists there!” said James Hutchinson as he finished off the reading programme with an brilliant group of pupils. The welcome from the school and their ideas about making the literacy programme even bigger and better, sounds like a great plan.

We learnt that boys don’t seem to read as much as girls do, and James had some interesting views from the locker room about this, “Reading is cool and so important for everyone, all us players read books as much as we can. Sometimes on the road, in the locker room or just to relax; and the important thing is: Read anything you find interesting and you’ll learn to enjoy it! So boys at Cregagh, the Giants want to hear more about the books you are getting through! I’ll be checking in with the school to find out.”

Giant Aaron Clarke felt like a part of the class when he visited Malvern Primary School a few weeks back; with warm smiles, big cheers and little puppets, Aaron couldn’t have asked for a warmer welcome. It could have been a combination of the Christmas buzz or the special play the school just watched, but we like to think that is was because of the excitement about our reading programme!

The class were great, as Aaron explains “The pupils were amazing, we had such a good time together. I didn’t want to leave. Thanks so much everyone!.” The season end is coming quickly Malvern pupils, so please make sure you use your tickets from Tesco soon!

Rob Jovanovic has spent five years tracing the families of the GB team and constructing the players’ stories. His research has taken him from leafy southern England to 19th Century Glasgow, across the Atlantic to the great plains of Canada and back to the Nazi Germany of the 1930s before an unlikely ending in Nottingham. The result was an intensely researched, 224 page book which also includes hundreds of illustrations with exclusive input from the players’ families, most of which has never before been seen or heard. This is the classic story of a group of men winning against all the odds. A group who didn’t want the fame or the riches that came with success, the winning was enough. This is the story of their Pride & Glory.

The book is now on sale from the Belfast Giants on game nights at the merchandise stands for £14.99

As for Garrett Zemlak in the home goal he had a busy nights work as he faced a total of 40 shots. However, he held out until the third period before the Giants could find a way past him.

After the first two periods had ended goalless, the visitors finally got a breakthrough at 44.17 as George Awada found a way past the impressive Zemlak. The Giants doubled their lead at 51.21 with a strike from Aaron Clarke.

The Flyers pulled the goaltender at 58.43 in an effort to get something out the game but Robert Dowd found the empty net with 5 seconds remaining.

The Clan pulled one back on the powerplay at 8:50 of the second period when player/coach Drew Bannister fired one past Stephen Murphy to make it 1-1. The Clan goal came on the powerplay with George Awada in the box for hooking. Referee Moray Hanson really let these two teams fight it out on the ice and didn’t let special teams play much of a part in this game, calling only 4 penalties the entire night – 3 on the Giants and 1 on the Clan. The second period finished with the game tied at one a piece with the Giants continuing to outshoot the home side by a total of 27 to 8.

The third period seemed to see the Clan come alive as they hit the ice flying and finally bettered the Giants on the shot count, firing 10 shots at Murphy in the third period alone and picking up a goal along the way. Newest signing right winger Mike Wirll scored his first goal of the season for the Clan to put them in front 2-1 with just over 14 minutes remaining in the game, but the Giants newest signing Paul Deniset got his first of the season to tie the game 2-2 at just two minutes later.

The final 10 minutes of the game saw end to end action with huge stops at both ends of the ice from Murphy and Suomalainen. With 11 seconds remaining the puck got played across the face of the Giants goal and with an open net in front of him it looked as though Jordan Krestanovich was going to hit home the game winner, somehow he managed to put it straight into the body of a sprawling Murphy and the chance was lost and the clock ticked down to 0:00 with the score still 2-2.

Into overtime and neither team could break the deadlock and the game was decided by a penalty shootout. After both teams had taken two penalty shots with neither of them finding the net. Both teams then scored twice before Dowd with his second attempt netted the game winner and Wirll missed his for the Giants to pick up the extra point.

In his 9 seasons, Walton has won 4 championships – the Elite League Title in 2006, the Challenge Cup and Knock Out Cup in 2009 and the Playoff Championship in 2010. The BBC will be airing a story on television profiling Walton later today, but it is already up online. Click below to watch it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/northern_ireland/16748770.stm