It’s playoff time, it’s a new season altogether some would say, but it wasn’t a new Giants as they went and lost again to the Steelers to get their playoff campaign off to the worst possible start.

They went down 3-1 against Sheffield with all the scoring happening in the first period. The Giants and Steelers matched each other in a low shout count of 23-23 but the deciding factor was the Giants discipline.

Sheffield got the first two goals on the Power play, with the leagues top points scorer Mark Dutiaume opening the scoring and then Joel Irving doubling their lead on the man advantage with a two man power play.

The Giants then made a game of it by pulling one back through Todd Kelman but a Ryan lake goal before the end of the period completed the scoring for the night.

The violent side of the game then picked up when Ryan Lake put on an extremely cheap and dirty hit on Giants defenseman Graeme Walton from behind sending him face first into the boards. Walton didn’t get up for quite some time and rightfully Lake was ejected from the game, but surprisingly it was only a game penalty.

The third period seen more action as Paxton Schulte went after Dion Darling. The two fought a few weeks ago with Paxton winning it on punches landed but the victory was a lot more one sided tonight as Paxton landed all the punches and then dropped Darling to the ice. Darling got 2+2 but Paxton was landed with 5+game for tripping and 5+game for fighting. This really sky rocketed his penalty minute count once again.

The Giants travel to Manchester to complete their two away games of the playoff race before returning to the Odyssey the following weekend for back to back games against the Steelers and Phoenix.

Sheffield Steelers 3-1 Belfast Giants

Steelers: Dutiaume (pp) 9:37, Irving (pp) 12:11, Lake 16:13.
Giants: Kelman 14:43.

Giants Lineup: Ryder, Johnson, Jamieson, Stewart, Walton, Kelman, J.Bowen, Morrison, Ward, Finney, Sample, Ruff, Schulte, Kenny, C.Bowen, McGimpsey.
Scratch: G.Martin (broken collarbone), Brittle, Carlon.

Notes:
— Paxton Schulte took 56 minutes in penalties.