Giants 4, Devils 0 

When 2006 came to an end there were not to many happy fans in Belfast.  The Giants had finished up the year with a terrible month of December and looked to have blown what was a huge lead in the league standings.  Coventry had games in hand and where winning them and the Giants looked like they had blown their league title even before they had been knocked off top spot.  But a few weeks off and a trip home for some players appears to have done the trick as they shut out a high flying Cardiff team at home while Coventry fell to Newcastle keeping the Giants on top and hopefully moving them away from that poor December.

When looking at the Giants problems over the last while it was hard to pin point a reason.  No one player was playing poor hockey, in fact when Ed announced two weeks ago that if things did not change he would be releasing one player and icing himself it was hard to see which player he would drop and if so would that player be made a scape goat for what was essentially a team issue?  Ed of course realised this and shook up the lines going into the game to see what that brought about.  With Ed being a forward himself all eyes where on the import players to see which one if any would have a bad night and force Ed’s hand.  It never happened.

Big Leigh Jamieson was moved up onto the top line with Dutiaume and Ruff as a reward for his excellent play so far this season since Ed moved him from defence onto the wing of the third line.  Still the Giants youngest player in the midst of his forth season with the team Leigh came into the game with eight points but moved that tally to nine in the second period with a well worked goal, his third of the season.  It came in the second period after a hard fought first seen neither team break the deadlock.

With three seconds to go in the second period and the Giants enjoying the man advantage Curtis Huppe finished a well worked goal for his 18th of the season when he fired home a Mark Dutiaume pass on the one timer.

It looked to be playing out that way until the final five minutes of the contest when Ruff scored a superb goal after some great exchange passing with Dutiaume and then in the final two minutes Huppe scored his second of the night on a short handed effort with J.P. Morin in the box serving a penalty.

It was the third shutout of the season for Mike Minard and a much needed confidence booster for himself and the Giants team.  With a great team performance grinding out the win it again showed that the problem was not an individual one but more so a team issue.  The shakeup in line combinations seems to have done the trick.  The big challenge is building on that.

Giants-History.com 3 stars:
1st Star: Curtis Huppe
2nd Star: Mike Minard
3rd Star: Mark Dutiaume

Category: Game Recaps (06-07) » » |

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