Well this weekend has been a long time coming. I’ve been as far away from the Giants as possible all week while player changes have been made and the team got its new look and spent parts of the weekend logging on to check the scores and how we got along. Imagine my surprise when yesterday I logged on to see we had won our second game of the weekend to put together two back to back wins for the first time this season. It has moved us well clear of the foot of the table, up to 7th in fact and only a couple of points back of likes of the Nottingham Panthers.

The Giants have been looking for an identity of their own all season without much joy, but with player overhaul threats coming true this week a new look team took to the ice on Saturday night and finally gave the much demanding Odyssey crowd something to go home smiling about. New guys like Peter Campbell and Stevie Lyle made instant impressions over the weekend. Campbell had a two goal, two assists debut night while Lyle picked up the man of the match in both weekend games turning aside 67 shots out of a possible 71 for both wins.

One side point to the games was the return of golden boy Shane Johnson. We all know about his great history with the Giants and were hoping he would bring the resolve and experience to steady our ship. With Kelman also coming into the line-up to cover injuries to Gavalier and Trevor Johnson on defence it was just like rolling back the years seeing Kelman and Johnson patrol the blue-line for the Giants. Both players made an impact, Killer good for two assists over the two weekend games with Johnson picking up an assist and in many eyes missing out on a deserved man of the match performance on Saturday night.

This coming weekend the boys are back in Dundalk for another of them home games on the road. I’ll be making the trip down and look forward to it. If the fans can create the kind of atmosphere we seen down there a few weeks ago and the players can put on a winning performance we have seen this past weekend then the hour trip down over the border will be much worth it.

Category: Game Recaps (07-08) » Basingstoke Bison |

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