Tedesco Double Gives Giants Victory Over Blaze

The winger scored the final two goals in the win on home ice as Ben Lake, Josh Roach, and Bobby MacIntyre also found the net, with netminder Tyler Beskorowany turning away 15 shots in the victory, as the Giants earned their revenge for last week’s shoot-out loss at the Coventry Skydome.

FIRST PERIOD

The Giants were quick out of the blocks and went ahead just 1:08 into the game as Lake grabbed the opener, the centre found in the slot by Greg Printz and ripping it high over the blocker side of Nolan Kent (1-0) before the netminder did well to deny Printz on a redirect on Sean Norris’ pass to the crease.

But with their first real foray into the Giants zone the Blaze tied it, a scrappy play in front eventually picked up by Kobe Roth who prodded it in for the equaliser at 7:02 (1-1), although Belfast continued to dominate and Roach nearly equalised when he drove into the left circle and fired wide.

SECOND PERIOD

A quick start from the Giants saw Will Cullen ring the iron just seconds into the second frame, but the Blaze continued their own push and James Shearer nearly tipped in a back door pass, but it went across the face of goal and wide.

A lovely drag move from Tedesco set up a scoring chance for Kohei Sato but his effort was blocked by Kent, with Roach nearly sneaking a long-range one-timer through the pads of goalie before Sato once again had a sight of goal as he skated in from the blue-line but could only hit the netminder’s pads from the right face-off dot.

But the goal was coming and it finally arrived at 32:02, Roach lining up the one-timer from the blue-line and smashing it all the way in to give the Giants back their lead (2-1) but they were unable to add to it when Alessio Luciani was penalised for delay of game and instead the Blaze would tie it with 30.3 seconds to the intermission as Ian McNulty burst in one-on-one with Beskorowany and rapped home. (2-2)

THIRD PERIOD

An early too many men on the ice penalty against the Giants put them on the back foot but the home side managed to kill it off before Cameron Pound tested the glove of Kent from the blue-line but couldn’t beat the goaltender.

Kim Tallberg had a big chance to give Coventry the lead when two Giants defencemen collided to allow him in on Beskorowany, but the netminder made the stop and that allowed MacIntyre to score the game-winning goal at 52:44 on a delayed penalty, the winger sniping it top corner from the right circle. (3-2)

Roth could have tied it shortly after when he went in one-on-one with Beskorowany but couldn’t hit the target and instead Tedesco called game with his late double, grabbing his first at 54:03 when he finished off Lake’s backhand dish to the doorstep (4-2) and then beating Kent on the backhand wraparound at 57:41 to wrap it up. (5-2)

Next up, the Stena Line Belfast Giants will make a trip to the Guildford Flames on Sunday 28 January to continue their Elite League campaign, before welcoming the Cardiff Devils to The SSE Arena, Belfast for a massive double-header on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 February. Tickets are available here.