The Belfast Giants fell 4-7 to Ilves Tampere in a thrilling Champions Hockey League encounter at the SSE Arena on Saturday evening.

First Period

From the off, the traffic was largely one-way towards Jackson Whistle’s goal. The Giants’ number one made a series of impressive saves with one from Radek Kučeřík in particular a highlight. However, the visitors broke the deadlock on 03:03 after Timi Teuho-Markkola put the finishing touches on a nicely-worked team goal. (0-1)

The Ilves dominance continued with Kell Beattie superbly blocking another goal-bound effort from Teuho-Markkola. The game could have got away from the hosts when Garret McFadden was sent to the penalty box for tripping but Adam Keefe’s side knuckled down and even had a couple of short-handed chances through Nicolas Guay and Bo Hanson.

Ultimately, that penalty was killed as was one for Ilves served by Toni Utunen with both sides creating chances before the buzzer. Most notably for the Giants was Guay firing over after good work from Mike Lee while Whistle did well to hold a rasping effort from Sebastian Soini.

Second Period

The home side were very much still in the game heading into the second stanza and only the outstretched stick of Utunen prevented Patrick Grasso finishing a Hanson pass. The Giants were starting to turn the screw with Grasso coming close again and Jake Gaudet also whistling one wide. The men from Finland did fire a warning shot away when Matias Mäntykivi rang the crossbar but the game was level on 28:36 when Guay finished a rebound after Dominik Pavlát denied Ryan Smith (1-1)

However, that joy was extremely short-lived as the celebrations hadn’t even died down when John Nyberg squeezed home a loose puck just 19 seconds later (1-2). It would have been easy for the Giants to capitulate but, far from it as they came roaring back and evened things again on 35:40 when David Goodwin was lurking around the net to finish when Pavlát parried JJ Piccinich’s shot. (2-2)

The breathless middle period was not over yet as the Giants were punished on the penalty kill. Hanson was the man sat down for slashing and, after having a sighter effort well saved, Lukas Svejkovsky picked out the top corner of Whistle’s net with pinpoint precision with 01:42 remaining. (2-3)

Third Period

The drama was far from finished as the two teams picked up where they left off in the final period. After a couple of efforts were saved, the Giants scored a stunning team effort as they moved the puck across the ice with ease allowing captain Goodwin to sweep home his second to level things again (3-3). The dust hadn’t even settled on that when Bo Hanson rifled home from almost on the blue line to lift the roof off the SSE Arena. (4-3).

However, that seemed to jolt the visitors into life and they restored parity yet again when Jens Lööke smashed a one-timer past Whistle. (4-4) This seemed to fill Tommi Niemelä’s side with confidence and they had the Giants on the back foot for the remainder of the game.

Simon Johansson danced his way through the home rear guard and finished with aplomb to give his side a lead that they would not relinquish again (4-5) before Matic Török added a sixth (4-6). The icing was put on the cake when Svejkovsky got his second and Ilves’ seventh to put a somewhat unfair slant on the final score (4-7). Adam Keefe’s men more than played their part in a thrilling game of hockey that will live long in the memory.

The Giants go on the road to Switzerland next weekend for their first two away fixtures in the Champions Hockey League. First, they visit Lausanne HC on Friday September 5^th at 17:00GMT before making the 150-mile trip to Zug on Sunday 7^th September. Puck drop there is 13:00GMT.