The Giants sunk to their worst defeat of the season on Thursday night when they took a 6-1 hammering by the Sheffield Steelers. The team looked like a squad that has lost all confidence since their 16-game winning streak was snapped about a month ago.

Sheffield came into the game without a warm-up thanks to their flight being delayed that caused the game to be delayed by half-an-hour. Still they came out as fresh as the Giants and matched them blow for blow throughout the first twenty-minutes and went into the first interval with the lead. No time to panic, their was still 40-minutes to get back on track right? Wrong. Sheffield, having used the first period as their warm-up then took control and dominated the rest of the game. They where quicker, sharper and better organised than a Giants team that reminded us all of the team that took to the ice at the first stage of the season and not the same group that won 16-in-a-row.

Stevie Lyle in goal had an especially off night. For a player who had been outstanding since his arrival from Basingstoke earlier in the year he has looked a little off his game in the last few run-outs. You may remember that he replaced Phil DeRouville after his shocking start to the year, well sitting in the stands I was beginning to wonder if a conspiracy theory was unfolding in front of my eyes and that Phil has returned to the Giants team in the Lyle jersey.

Alas it wasn’t to be and when the fifth weak goal hit the net Ed Courtenay made his decision and pulled his goalie from the game and put in the young Adam Cree who has seen next to no ice time so far this season. Sheffield clearly eased up at this stage not wanting to break that ‘unwritten rule’ that you don’t run up the score on a beaten and desperate team. A Matsos team was never going to do such a thing but when Tait was put through on goal one-on-one he did the only thing he could. He gave Cree every chance to make the save but still slid to puck five-hole for the sixth and final goal.

As the clock ticked down, I turned to those beside me - as we do every week - and asked who do you think will be our man of the match? This was one tough decision. Nobody was worth of it, but someone had to get it. As it turned out Shane Johnson got the reward though I felt only Carlyle Lewis carried himself in any way - skating hard, throwing hits and putting in the effort. At one point Lewis hit one of the Sheffield players so hard he put him out of the game and into a Belfast hospital overnight.

There will be a lot of sole searching for the Giants and it would be nice to have been a fly on the wall of the press-conference to hear what Courtenay had to say, though I’m sure we all know what he is thinking.

Category: Game Recaps (07-08) » » Sheffield Steelers |

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