Vipers 1, Giants 3

A powerplay goal by Dutiaume, an empty net goal by Ruff and a consolation empty net goal by Huppe was enough to help the Giants to a 3-1 victory over last seasons playoff champs the Newcastle Vipers.  The Giants top 3 point scorers so far this season where on fine form for a second night in a row as the Giants took all four points and seen rivals Nottingham gain only one from a possible four as the Giants extended their lead at the top of the Elite League.

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Steelers 5, Giants 6 

Mark Dutiaume turned on the style in a fantastic Giants comeback last night against the Steelers with two goals and three assists in a 6-5 over-time win.  The Giants who lead the game early on found themselves 4-2 down going into the final period but came firing back to lead 5-4 only for the Steelers to tie it up at 5-5 with a matter of seconds to go.  It was the Giants who grabbed the extra point however in OT when Curtis Huppe scored the winner.

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Belfast Telegraph — Belfast Giants general manager John Elliott last night spelt out the reasons why the team was playing in Belfast last weekend rather than Europe.

The Giants had first refusal on the Continental Cup place that is offered to the Elite League after winning the Championship last season, but it was the Nottingham Panthers who competed in the competition in France.

When the Giants last won the league back in 2002 it led them to the Super Final of the Continental Cup the following January, but that was in the days of Superleague and things are very different now.

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The Elite league today confirmed the dates for the 2007 playoff final four weekend.  It’ll take place on Saturday and Sunday, April 7th and 8th.  It’ll feature the same format as previous years and again take place in Nottingham.

Nottingham is without doubt the best venue for such a weekend and is always the best weekend of hockey in the year as fans from all teams travel to watch the final weekend of hockey in the season.  It always carries with it a party like atmosphere and everyone is in high spirits whether they win, lose or their team isn’t featuring.

The extra bonus is that this years playoff weekend ties in with the Easter weekend meaning those of you who usually book a days leave on the Monday shouldn’t have to and should have an extra few days to recover! 

Recover from a celebration that is…. We hope!

For ticket pricing info click below:

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The Giants hit the road this weekend in what is likely to be two tricky contests even if they are against the leagues two out of form teams.  In our recent power rankings the Steelers and Vipers ranked in 9th and 10th place with Newcastle especially starting the season in real poor fashion.

You got to think though this funk isn’t going to last for either team, Newcastle cannot just go from Playoff winners one season to bottom team the next, can then?  Well the new rules have been a problem for them but it’s not like the Giants have adapted over night either but we’ve at least managed to pick up the points.

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Currently there are 4 known ex-Giants players playing, 1 player coaching and 1 just bench coaching in the Elite League today.  Some of these players will be very well known to you all and at least one of them, you probably wont even remember..  Giants-History.com takes a look at how these 7 guys are doing this season with their respective teams…

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Ok so it’s not really week 1 of play but but it’s about the right time of the season to kick off the power rankings feature.  Power rankings are used in the NHL by different media sources to rank the inform teams from week to week or month to month.  They use different formulas to work it out, some complicated and some simple.  Here of course it’ll be kept simple but still be interesting enough to take something out of it, and released every other week where possible.

The Elite league season is still young(ish) and different teams have played different amounts of games making it tough to judge who the best teams have been to date.  Our very own Giants for example have played 11 games, with Cardiff having only played 7.

So how does this work you ask?  Well it’s simple and it goes through goal difference for a team in relation to games played.  It’s a pretty good measuring stick on how good or bad a team is and looking at it every couple of weeks can make interesting reading.  Of course this doesn’t factor in the opposition played for each team where a team might have an unusually high goal difference depending on the strength of opposition faced in that week.  Still for a small 10 team league it should be reasonably even overall and it’s another reason why rankings will be released every other week and not week.

So without further ado, here’s a look at how teams rank so far:

1. Nottingham Panthers - +10 / 8gp = 1.25
2. Cardiff Devils - +4 / 7gp = 0.57
3. Belfast Giants – +6 / 11gp = 0.55
4. Coventry Blaze – +3 / 8gp = 0.38
5. Manchester Phoenix – +1 / 8 = 0.13
6. Hull Stingrays – -1 / 9 = -0.11
7. Edinburgh Capitals – -1 / 8 = -0.13
8. Basingstoke Bison – -3 / 8 = -0.38
9. Sheffield Steelers – -4 / 10 = -0.40
10. Newcastle Vipers – -15 / 7 = -2.14

Official vehicle supplier to the Giants team, Charles Hurst has put together an ad campaign featuring the Belfast Giants that will air for the first time tonight on UTV.  It’s the first time in 5 years the Giants will have appeared on TV in the form of an advertising commercial and will feature some of the players with Todd Kelman providing the voice over.  The commercial forms part of an extensive Charles Hurst Usedirect media campaign which will be run across newspaper, radio and TV, together with an exclusive deal which will be mailed to all season ticket holders.  The first 3 air times for the ad on Monday 16th are: 7.28pm, 9.15pm and 11.45pm.  It makes excellent reading for fans as the team promotes itself in run-up to Christmas in the hopes of selling more seats and improving attendances.  With these prime-time advertising slots it really improves the chances of reaching out to the maximum audience possible.

Jason Ruff and Todd Kelman continue to battle it out for the all-time assists lead for the Giants.  Ruff’s second assist of the game on a Jeff Hutchins goal in Saturdays 3-1 win over Hull put the big Canadian forward who recently became the teams all-time points leader on 119 assists compared to Kelmans 118.  

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On this day in 2005 the Theo Fleury finally made his first appearance in a Giants uniform.  After months of waiting for the fans the little big man showed up to make the wait well worth it in an 11-2 drubbing of the Edinburgh Capitals in which Theo scored 3 goals, 4 assists and got in a fight.  It was the perfect debut and paved the way for one of the most exciting and controversial players ever to play in Belfast – certainly the most talented. 

At the time he was still not in game shape but got better by the game throughout the season and by the seasons end Theo had registered 24 goals and 70 assists for 94 points in just 38 games.  Good for 2.09 points per game.  He also racked up 308 penalty minutes.  Only ever destined to play for one season in Belfast he will still go down as one of the Giants greatest personalities and certainly the most famous name in team history.

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