Stingrays 7, Giants 2

It was 8-0 by the league leading Blaze six days ago; tonight it was 7-2 at the hands of last place Hull.  If my formula’s are correct then tomorrow night against mid-table Sheffield they should take us about 6-4?  Gosh a defeat like that right now actually sounds like a good result.  Who knows what’s going on with the Giants but at least tonight their physical side came out a little in frustration.  Awada was in the thick of things all night roughing it up and even shedding the mitts to win a fight - it’s the only thing we’re winning of late but with the ‘C’ on his chest I guess he had to stand up and he deserves some credit for it.  Skiehar from early reports also dropped the gloves near the end but there’s no report on that one yet.  As for our goal scorers well, answers on a postcard…

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Blaze 8, Giants 0 

The Giants blew it big time.  When your goalie has a disaster and your forwards don’t show up you know you’re in for a long night.  Despite out shooting the Blaze 37-22 the Giants where embarrassed by the likely 06-07 league champions, Coventry Blaze.  I say likely in that in this sport you don’t know what’s going to happen next.  We’ve went from good to bad and it could equally happen to Coventry but the unfortunate thing is we now need that kind of collapse from them to have any chance.

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Giants 4, Vipers 1

Scoring has been a problem for the Giants over the last couple of months after scoring for fun early in the season.  It seems at last the scoring touch has returned but it took until late in the game against Newcastle before the goals started to come.  They started from a suprising source as well, forward Shawn Skiehar scored the game winner for the Giants to make it 2-1 before Curtis Huppe and Jeff Hutchins added goals to seal the deal.  Todd Kelman had given the Giants the lead early in the game with is 200th point as a Giants player before Andre Payette tied things up mid-way through the third for the Vipers.  OT was avoided by three goals in two and a half minutes by the Giants as they finally solved goaltender Mark Lee, a British kid who was in goal in place of the injured Aubery for the match.

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Giants 3, Stingrays 2

That’s more like it.  The third period of Saturday night’s game reminded us all what the Giants are capable of.  Pucks where getting fired hard into the Stingrays zone and players where chasing them down more often than not getting to them first.  It may have been a come from behind win but it was one the Giants deserved.

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Giants 1, Phoenix 2 

Those where the mocking yet fateful words of one fan bellowing above the silent Odyssey crowd as Tony Hand controlled the puck along the half boards on a Manchester powerplay.  Before anyone had the chance to laugh or indeed cringe at the inevitable, the inevitable happened.  Tony wound up and lazered the puck high into the Giants goal to tie up the game.  He gilded across the ice with his arms in the air and intentionally or not his jersey with the number 9 and the name Hand pointing right across towards the section the now silent fan sat.  It was all going one way from then on in.

The Giants are now 5-6 in their last eleven games with one of them defeats coming in a shootout.  Not quite championship winning material for the team once in complete control of their fate.  Failing to make the playoffs is highly unlikely but the way the team and their confidence has collapsed of late you’ve got to wonder if the title favourites, final four lock in’s are going to salvage anything from this season.

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Giants 2, Phoenix 3

The Giants conceded two goals in twelve seconds within the first two minutes against Manchester tonight giving them a real battle to salvage something from the game.  Unfortunately for all they put in they couldn’t bring back the score and eventually went down 3-2.  It’s certainly not a result to beat themselves up on, they dominated the play after going down two goals and but for a Phoenix goal against the run of play later in the first the Manchester team rarely threatened the Giants goal.  The big problem was that for all their pressure the Giants rarely created any clear-cut chances and when they did on two occasions they found the goal.  The Manchester defence and Wolfe in goal were in fine form, shutting down the Giants all evening and holding on to their lead right until the end when the Giants had Minard pulled and had three faceoffs in the Phoenix zone in the final thirty seconds.

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Giants 3, Stingrays 1
Devils 3, Giants 5

Things are really starting to roll for the Giants again lately.  Three wins in a row after the two victories this weekend and the team finally appear to have found their winning chemsetry.  A change up in lines appears to have done the trick.  With Coventry looking shaky in games over the last week or two the league is still very much there to be played for as the Giants sit two points clear but with two extra games played.  Hull and Cardiff where the opponents in the way of the Giants this weekend and both where disposed of, but not without a few challenges on the way.

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Giants 4, Devils 0 

When 2006 came to an end there were not to many happy fans in Belfast.  The Giants had finished up the year with a terrible month of December and looked to have blown what was a huge lead in the league standings.  Coventry had games in hand and where winning them and the Giants looked like they had blown their league title even before they had been knocked off top spot.  But a few weeks off and a trip home for some players appears to have done the trick as they shut out a high flying Cardiff team at home while Coventry fell to Newcastle keeping the Giants on top and hopefully moving them away from that poor December.

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Giants 7, Panthers 4
Giants 1, Capitals 2 

Giant’s games have been odd lately.  You go up, but you just don’t know what you are going to get.  Going into December it was pretty routine, there were four goals a game for and the team where picking up win after win and looking very good for their lead at the top of the Elite League.  Many had already cast their vote that the Giants would indeed pick up the Elite league title for the second straight season.  Well December hit and I’m not sure weather Christmas parties and everything that goes with it got in the way but the Giants stopped playing hockey.

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Giants 2, Bison 3
Bison 4, Giants 1 

Well it’s boxing day and I hope everyone had an excellent Christmas.  I know we all needed something to take our mind off all things hockey for a few days after a bad week for the Giants.  Still it’s exactly what the boys needed, some time away from the rink to re-group and get their title push back on the rails.  Last week it looked like the wheels where really coming off.

It’s been a busy few days leading up to Christmas as well as attending the home defeat to Basingstoke so it’s taken a while to update here, but it’s not been something I’ve been looking forward to doing.  Eitherway, Basingstoke deserve credit, they have been the form team of the Elite league of late and grinded out two fantastic wins against our boys.  Certainly we deserved a win from the home game, missing a ton of chances and failing to score more than just the twice (Huppe & Dutiaume) on 37 shots to the Bisons 14.

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Giants 3, Capitals 4 (so)
Steelers 5, Giants 7

So it’s been a few days now and I’m finally getting writing on the weekends games but what a weekend it was.  One certainly comprised of one of the games of the season and the other as one of the shocks of the year.  Everyone expected the Giants to invite Edinburgh into their barn then send them home with their tails between their legs.  They then expected the boys to head over to Sheffield battle out a tough game and all being well take home the win.  Well as it turned out not everything went according to plan.

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Devils 3, Giants 2 (ASO)

Penalty shots may well feature in practice this morning after the Giants went down to the Cardiff Devils in their new rink in penalty shots.  The game was tied 2-2 after regulation and overtime before heading to the shootout.  George Awada, Jason Ruff and J.P. Morin all missed sending it into sudden death, when Awada and Ruff missed for a second time Cardiff finally got a goal to take the win and the extra point.  The Giants will be content enough with the single road point but must get back to winning ways this weekend against Edinburgh.

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Blaze 2, Giants 1 

As it turned out the spoils between the number one and two teams in the league this weekend where shared.  The Giants who took a superb win last night where frustrated by an excellent performance in goal by Coventry goalie Trevor Koenig.  He turned aside 33 shots by the Giants allowing only one past him when George Awada scored short handed.  It leaves the point’s gap at seven points, just as it was going into the weekend with Coventry having four games in hand to try closing the gap.  Still, they must win them all to do so.

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Giants 3, Blaze 0 

The Giants got the weekend off to the best possible start with a huge win over second place Coventry.  They beat the Blaze 3-0 giving Mike Minard a 27 save shutout with ex-Coventry Blaze forward Jeff Hutchins coming back to haunt his old team with an outstanding hat trick.  It puts the Giants in the driving seat going into tomorrow nights game in Coventry with all the pressure on Coventry to come good and keep the Giants within their sights in the league standings.

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Stingrays 1, Giants 2

Three wins in four nights, six points and the Giants are in great shape going into the biggest weekend of the season in six days.  A 2-1 win over Hull tonight was the perfect way to end a great weekend for the league leaders.  Next weekend the Giants play a home and home game against Coventry the second place team in games that many think could decide how the outcome of the league title will shape up.  It might be a little early for that but the team that comes out best next weekend will be great shape.

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