GIANTS WIN ON THE ROAD AGAINST FIFE FLYERS

The Belfast Giants defeated the Fife Flyers 4-1 in a Challenge Cup clash at the Fife Ice Arena on Sunday evening.

First Period

Keen to get back on the ice after their Saturday night defeat to the Stars, the Giants came out of the traps quickly in Kirkcaldy. They opened the scoring after less than three minutes through Garrett McFadden. The Ontario-born defenceman was quickest to react in space when Marcus Eriksson shovelled the puck his direction and he fired low and hard past Christian Purboo in goal. (0-1)

The hosts did respond well to this setback and the Giants had Jackson Whistle to thank for holding on to Ben Brown’s rasping drive before Garet Hunt came agonisingly close to diverting Ryan Nicholson’s effort home. Captain David Goodwin then spurned a good chance to double his side’s lead with a one-on-one with Purboo but the Flyers goalie was equal to him.

Nicolas Guay then had an effort whistle just over that rattled the glass behind the goal before there were too many yellow jerseys in the way as Ryan Smith tried to force home on the wraparound. Adam Keefe’s men finished the first on top with Brodie Kay sat down for tripping and Scott Conway getting a shot through a crowd but not past Purboo. Ultimately, the penalty was killed as the lead was just one at the first intermission.

Second Period

The Flyers came out well after the interval with Ethan Somoza having an effort graze the crossbar and another held by Whistle. Didrik Svendsen served two penalties in the second period for roughing and holding respectively but the Giants couldn’t capitalise on either. The hosts then did capitalise on Whistle leaving his crease and failing to hit a teal jersey with his pass. That ultimately led to Ian Schied levelling proceedings midway through the period (1-1).

The visitors did not fold and came straight back on the attack. This resulted in Ryan Smith restoring their lead less than a minute later thanks to some lovely stick work. (1-2) He was teed up by Guay who himself had been denied just before by a brave block from Jeremy Masella.

Bo Hanson and Ben Lake were the denied by a brilliant double-save by Purboo but there was nothing the keeper could do when facing Goodwin on the breakaway for the second time as the Belfast captain extended his side’s lead with 32:40 on the clock. (1-3) That sent Adam Keefe’s men in at the second intermission up by two.

Third Period

At the beginning of the third period, Gabe Bast was getting himself into scoring opportunities with one whistling wide and the other not going very far at all after a broken stick. However, that was to be foreboding of what was to come. In the meantime, Fife almost cut the deficit to one when Johan Porsberger reacted quickest to an awkward bounce off the boards and was only denied by the reflexes of Whistle.

Kay was then sat down for the Flyers but they killed that penalty despite Karl Boudrias ringing the post. Ethan Hadden and Ciaran Long both had breakaway opportunities that were thwarted by the respective goalies before Bast did get his goal with a tick over seven minutes remaining. He put the finishing touches on a neat team move with JJ Piccinich’s final pass swept home by the Alberta native (1-4). Despite finishing with a man down thanks to a late penalty against Piccinich, that would ultimately be enough for the Challenge Cup holders to recover from Saturday night’s home defeat to Dundee and register their first win of the season.

Up next

These two meet again with the Flyers making the trip across the Irish Sea this time for a match-up at The SSE Arena on Saturday 20^th September. That game starts at 7pm and you can find tickets here.