It was fight night in Belfast this Friday as the rough and tough London Racers rolled into two looking to mix it up with the Belfast team. It didn’t talk long for the action to kick off when on the second shift of the game and Mel Angelstads’ first shift he was asked to drop the gloves by London tough guy Jeremy Cornish. Mel obliged and a great scrap ensued with Mel getting the better of it and dropping Cornish.

As the period wore on and the hits kept going in it was inevitable that another fight was brewing. The most noticeable hit of the night going to Graeme Walton, who had moved up forward instead of his usual defensive role, on man mountain Eric Cairns. A small altercation broke out in centre ice and when Mel Angelstad now out of the box after his previous fight went over to talk to Cairns it seemed like both where going to go. Instead the referees got in the way and broke it up and sent those two the box for delay of game.

Back on the ice a matter of seconds they collided and talked. Mel was waiting for the referees to blow the whistle before dropping the gloves. With two fights on the board Mel was going out of the game and in waiting for the whistle he also took London’s top defenseman Eric Cairns with him.

The two circled and finally came together with Cairns getting the better of the early punches. As Cairns tired, Mel took over having absorbed everything Cairns could throw and with a few rapid fire punches he unbalanced Cairns sending him two the ice. It was a great fight indeed and the Giants benched looked really pumped from it and up for the game.

The fighting wasn’t done however and soon young Leigh Jamieson was taking on another one of the Racers NHL’ers when he dropped the gloves with Scott Nichol. It didn’t last long as they scrapped near the benches and as Nichol was falling over Jamieson caught him with a huge punch to the face leaving Nichol down on the ice while Jamieson headed to the box.

With the fighting over and the hockey about to break out the second period got under way. A period of fights and now it was time for a period of goals as Belfast piled on the pressure racing out two a two goal lead. It took only a matter of seconds in to the period when Curtis Bowen converted a power play opportunity that had carried over from the previous period.

Then while short handed by two men the Giants managed a break away through player coach Tony Hand who put on a superb move, completely fooling the Racers net minder and sending the Giants 2-0 up. London battled back though and a few defensive errors let in the bruised Scott Nichol to pull one goal back and then before the end of the period Jason Hewitt levelled the score.

Now with the fighting and scoring done it was time for some tight hockey as both teams net minders took over to keep the score level. The Giants dominated the period but could not force home the winner. It went into overtime and again the Giants where all on top but still they couldn’t get the black rubber into the back of the net.

The hooter went and both team shared the spoils on what turned out to be a superb night of hockey with fights, goals and goal keeping.

Belfast Giants 2-2 London Racers

Giants: C.Bowen (pp) 20:49, Hand (sh) 32:23.
Racers: Nichol 34:07, Hewitt 39:29.
(Odyssey Arena, Belfast) 

Lines:
Kelly – C.Bowen – Awada
Huppe – Hand – Nasval
Morrison – Walton – Levers

J.Bowen – Johnson
Angelstad – Gavalier
Jamieson

Notes:
— Mel Angelstad fought both Jeremy Cornish and Eric Cairns in the first period.
— Leigh Jamieson fought Scott Nichol. 
— Todd Kelman missed the game through injury.

On the subject: Fight Reviews, Leigh Jamieson, Mel Angelstad, Newcastle Vipers | ALL SUBJECTS |

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