The Giants came out of the weekends fights with four points to show and so in my eyes failed to give me any reason as to why the fighting was such a bad thing.

I had said on a number of occassions if the fighting got in the way of winning then it would be an issue, but the Giants went about playing their hockey while entertaining the biggest crowds of the season on the side to pick up maximum points and stay in title contention.

Saturday nights game was a show in endurance. The Giants were short of bodies but the Vipers were even worse off and the Giants took advantage of it.

Once the two early fights, both involving Andre Payette when he took on Robins off the opening faceoff and later Malcolm MacMillan were out of the way a hockey game broke out. The Giants found themselves trailing early in a tight game in which both goalies were playing some fine hockey.

By the time the Giants did level the game they had no longer announced who had scored when everyones favourite Andre Payette put the Vipers ahead. Though while the Vipers were on top for the first period their second goal came against the run of play as they were beginning to tire with short bodies.

In the third period it got worse for the Vipers legs as the Giants speed continued to hurt their short bench as the Giants leveled the game and went on to take the victory curtosy of MacMillan’s empty net goal.

MacMillan had a cracking game picking up the Gordie Howe hat trick for his goal, assist and fight against Payette. We’ve seen quite a few of them this year actually.

On the subject: Gordie Howe Hat Trick, Malcolm Macmillan, Newcastle Vipers | ALL SUBJECTS |

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