Following Saturday’s nightmare heartbreak of a last weekend failure to capture the league crown the Giants flew over the EIHL finishing line in second place just a point shy of winners Coventry and although they were catching fast down the stretch they just ran out of time.

Saturday’s game as you may have read from my live blog was hard to take. I have yet to formally congratulate the Blaze even though they deserved their title over the course of the season. Let’s face it, in a league like the EIHL were every team plays every other team the same number of times, the table never lies and After 56 games of slugging it out the team at the top is rightly the best team in the country.

The only kind of small solace the Giants can take is that they beat the Blaze in their own arena in the final game of the season to show to themselves that had Edinburgh held strong for 29 more seconds on Saturday night the Giants indeed would have been champions. Can you take solace in that? Writing it like that perhaps makes it hurt even more. 29 seconds away from the league title only to have it snatched away from you by the very team you were battling it out to the title with, but at another stadium in another city against another team you were banking on coming through on your behalf. When you are relying on other teams to do you favours you know you have generally left it too late.

Of course, it is equally fair to say that had the title still been on the line last night the Blaze might well have approached the game in a different manor. I didn’t see the game but I am fairly confident the Blaze players were in party mood while the Giants were out to send some kind of message, any kind of message, heading into the playoffs.

The Giants are in fine form so there is reason to believe they could yet taste silverware this season. In 2002/03 the Giants came within a whisker of the title only to lose it by a fraction to Sheffield and the Giants went on to win the playoffs.

In British Hockey the League title is what matters, especially when your playoff format is so short and in some ways a real lottery on who wins it, but to the players who have grown up in the game, the playoffs is what matters. Of course, as always, like any true supporter we will formally judge whether the league title or playoff championship holds more importance by which one we walk away with in our arms at the end of the season, if any.

This is it… All up for grabs now and needing just a little favour from our Scottish neighbours as well!

Yep, the Giants are at home tonight against Newcastle with a win required and hoping that Edinburgh can deliver the goods against Coventry and take the championship race down to the final day between the two teams slugging it out – in Coventry: Blaze v Giants.

I’ll be getting some text updates from the game tonight and trying to hunt down what is going on between Coventry and Edinburgh. It would be nice just to get the chance to win it off our own bat tomorrow night. If you get the chance and aren’t at the game, tune into Giants TV for the live feed from the Odyssey and if you can’t do that, then keep up to date here…

Tonight’s games that will effect the title race are as follows:
(All times by the British clock)

Belfast Giants v Edinburgh Capitals @ 5 p.m.
Coventry Blaze v Sheffield Steelers @ 6 p.m.
Cardiff Devils v Nottingham Panthers @ 6 p.m.

5:45 p.m. The Giants have finished the first period and lead 2-0 with two big goals by Jeff Szwez. One text I have gotten from the game tells me that this guy is by far the best player on the team. No surprise there, the guy is clutch.

5:49 p.m. Coventry and Nottingham are yet to get underway but as of right now the table looks as follows:

1 Belfast 54gp 71pts
2 Coventry 52gp 70pts
3 Nottingham 52gp 68pts

5:55 p.m. Second period underway again for the Giants and the other two games will be getting underway any moment now.

6:05 p.m. Coventry leading Sheffield 2-1 already after just a few minutes of action. No score in Cardiff.

6:17 p.m. Awada scores with four left in the second period to make it 3-0 Giants. Surely they don’t blow this game now? It’s the second goal tonight for the Giants on the PP and they are now 2-3 tonight with the man advantage – rare.

6:35 p.m. Craig Peacock makes it 4-0 Giants with just over a minute to go in the 2nd period but Sheffield are 4-1 down to Coventry after just one period so it looks like Coventry will retain their league lead tonight. The good news is that Nottingham are being beat 1-0 in Cardiff.

7:05 p.m. Having never had it so easy the Giants take the win, 4-0, outshooting the Capitals 59-16. Unfortunately though the Blaze are beating the Steelers 4-1 in the second though the Panthers are losing 1-0 to Cardiff.

7:13 p.m. League standings at the minute:

1 Coventry 53gp 72pts
2 Belfast 54gp 71pts
3 Nottingham 53gp 68pts

7:38 p.m. Cardiff now two up on Nottingham but no change in the score at Coventry.

9:09 p.m. Coventry now 5-2 up in the third, Nottingham still 2-0 down.

9:25 p.m. Coventry squeak it 5-4 in the end. Sheffield ran them close it seems but they got the two points that matters.

9:53 p.m. Cardiff beat Nottingham 3-0 and put them far enough behind that even if they win their game in hand they will still trail the Giants. They need Coventry to fall apart to have any chance and the Giants have got to feel good about finishing second now.

TABLE:

1 Coventry 53gp 72pts
2 Belfast 54gp 71pts
3 Nottingham 53gp 68pts

All the Giants can do is win their final two games to move to 75 points which would include beating Coventry and hope that they take no more than two points from their other two games.

With only a handful of games remaining the title fight really is on and all three teams are in action tonight. Below is a look at the top 3 with games played out of the 56 in all and points in total along with a look at their remaining games including tonight’s. Edinburgh look like they will have a big factor in the title hunt and if the Giants are to win, having already played a game more than the other two, they’ll require each of them to slip up once and for the Giants to beat Coventry in the final game of the season, in Coventry. No easy task but it’s all up for grabs…

1 Coventry – 52gp – 70pts
2 Belfast – 53gp – 69pts
3 Nottingham – 52gp – 68pts

Coventry games remaining:
14 Mar v Sheffield
18 Mar v Edinburgh
20 Mar @ Edinburgh
21 Mar v Belfast

Giants games remaining:
14 Mar v Edinburgh
20 Mar v Newcastle
21 Mar @ Coventry

Panthers games remaining:
14 Mar @ Cardiff
17 Mar v Edinburgh
20 Mar @ Sheffield
21 Mar @ Newcastle

It’s not looking good for the Giants now following a 3-2 defeat to Edinburgh were they split a two game series against the Capitals on the road. A game misconduct to Jeff Szwez put the Giants down a man and with Shane Johnson and Sean McMorrow already out, what must have been tired legs, could not come through with the victory. That isn’t to blame Szwez however, he’s a player that plays on the edge and sometimes you know he’ll go over it. Still, it’s a disappointing result.

Those that seen the game – that is both sets of fans – were extremely critical of the referee who botched a number of calls including one where a Edinburgh powerplay goal was ruled out when the referee realised he had given the Caps a two man advantage when it should have been a 5-on-4 powerplay.

It’s easy to be very critical of some referee’s at the Elite League level who sometimes seem a little out of their depth, but then the same could be said for some players. Of course fans have a right to vent their fury towards the referee after coughing up their hard earned money. It’s always worth remembering though that the EIHL hasn’t got a back log of people wanting to referee in it’s league and without some of these guys you mightn’t have a league. It’s unfortunate there isn’t more refereeing talent in which to be critical of, but that’s the league we’re in.

The title isn’t officially gone for the Giants yet but they are going to need Coventry to fall apart soon. Coventry haven’t taken massive advantage of the Giants defeats in the run-in to the title and the same could be said for the Giants, but while the gap isn’t too huge there is always a chance.

And if now? Well, there’s always the playoffs.