First Period Frenzy Sees Giants Into Final Four

First Period

In a noisy Dundee Ice Arena, the hosts came out quickly trying to cut into the deficit from Saturday night’s first leg in Belfast. However, it was the visitors who had the first chance of the game with Mark Cooper hitting the post. Scott Conway then had his effort smothered by Jarrett Fiske in goal. There were some big hits going in early on and the home side started to get back into proceedings with efforts from Keanu Yamamoto and Craig McBean stopped by Jackson Whistle before Brett Gravelle rang the post.

However, the deadlock was broken on 05:36 when Cooper was sprang away by Mike Lee and his shot dropped just inside the post despite Fiske getting a sizeable piece of his glove to it. (0-1). That seemed to suck some of the life out of the home crowd and JJ Piccinich would add to the aggregate lead further less than two minutes later when he finished cleverly at the back post by using the blade of Fiske’s skate to deflect the puck home (0-2).

The Stars were already on the back foot and this was not helped when Xavier Pouliot and Ben O’Connor were sat down in quick succession meaning there was a 33 second window when the Giants had a two-man advantage. While the hosts killed the first penalty, the champions did get a powerplay goal thanks to Bobo Carpenter who scrambled home at the second attempt after being teed up unselfishly by P.O. Morin (0-3). The goal survived a video review and the Giants survived some late pressure with Philippe Sanche, in particular, being a nuisance.

Second Period

The pace of the second period was, unsurprisingly, a little slower after the restart with those quick-fire goals for Belfast allowing them to control the tempo of proceedings. Sanche and Carpenter traded efforts early on while Belfast killed a penalty for too many men on the ice that was served by David Goodwin. Morin then robbed a Stars defender in their own zone but, somehow, neither he nor Jordan Kawaguchi could force the puck into the gaping cage.

Suddenly, tensions spilled over just after the halfway mark of the second period with blows being traded by the boards near the away dugout. That resulted in Ben Lake and Pouliot serving long penalties while Karl Boudrias and Craig Moore saw their nights ended after a coming-together. There would be no further goals in the middle stanza despite Ciaran Long and Brendan Harms’ best efforts.

Third Period

After the chaotic nature of the second period, the third returned to normal service with chances at a premium. Sanche was again sniffing around the net as was Harms but Whistle was keeping them at bay. At the other end, Zak Galambos was troubling Fiske but scoring opportunities were few and far between as the game meandered to a close. However, to their credit, the Stars gave their bumper home support something to cheer about on 53:51 as Spencer Naas roofed the puck from close range after being set up by his captain Drydn Dow (1-3).

However, that was merely a consolation goal as the Belfast Giants eased into next weekend’s Final Four at the Motorpoint Arena, looking to make more memories in that barn this season.