Giants 2, Phoenix 3

The Giants conceded two goals in twelve seconds within the first two minutes against Manchester tonight giving them a real battle to salvage something from the game.  Unfortunately for all they put in they couldn’t bring back the score and eventually went down 3-2.  It’s certainly not a result to beat themselves up on, they dominated the play after going down two goals and but for a Phoenix goal against the run of play later in the first the Manchester team rarely threatened the Giants goal.  The big problem was that for all their pressure the Giants rarely created any clear-cut chances and when they did on two occasions they found the goal.  The Manchester defence and Wolfe in goal were in fine form, shutting down the Giants all evening and holding on to their lead right until the end when the Giants had Minard pulled and had three faceoffs in the Phoenix zone in the final thirty seconds.

George Awada and Jeff Hutchins had the goals for the Giants both scored in tight around the Phoenix goal.  Leigh Jamieson put on a man of the match performance for the Giants.  It was definitely the big Englishman’s best ever performance in a Giants jersey as he continually powered through the Phoenix defence looking for a way to goal.  He played a power forward type of game that Giants fans have been hoping they’d one day see from him all night long.  Again, for the forth-straight game Leigh started the match on the top line alongside Ruff and Dutiaume but when the Giants went down by three Coutenay opened the second period with Leigh back alongside linemates Levers and Morrison who he has played most of the year with.

As the Giants pulled two goals back and pressured for the tying goal late in the game Leigh was moved yet again, this time onto a line with Jeff Hutchins and Curtis Huppe as checking forward Shawn Skiehar sat the last five minutes while the Giants pushed with all the offence they could muster.  Into the final minute and both teams called separate timeouts but the tying goal just never came.

The Giants can certainly take positives from the defeat.  It certainly wasn’t reminiscent of their bad form from December, tonight the team pushed hard throughout and baring a terrible opening few minutes they probably would have won the game.  They threw twice as many shots at the goal as Manchester and on any other night probably would have walked away with the win.  This one wasn’t to be.

They’ll get the chance to put things to rights this Thursday however when Manchester are back in town for another league game.

Giants-History.com 3 Stars:
1st Star: Leigh Jamieson
2nd Star: George Awada
3rd Star: Roman Gavalier

Category: Game Recaps (06-07) » |

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