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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The race for 100 is well and truely on.  Jason Ruff is out front but Curtis Huppe is not far behind and has hit a real patch of form in front of goal in recent games.  It’s taken seven years but likely by the end of this season one if not two guys will have hit the 100 goal plateau as a Giants player.  I dont even want to think about the reasons why it mightn’t happen, it’s got to!!

Jason Ruff at time of writing sits on 91 goals as a Giants player.  Curtis Huppe sits on 83.  It might be a little tight for Curtis to make it but baring in mide this is over all competitions goals in the playoffs count towards this total.  With 19 league games left and a two legged playoff game all but assured that gives them 21 games to get the job done or potentially 23 should they make the playoff final.

For Ruff it’s to be 9 in 21 - Very likely; For Huppe it’s to be 17 in 21 - Possible.

I’ll be following this one with much interest!

218 in 35 (03-04), 170 in 50 (04-05) and 166 in 42 (05-06).  All but the 04-05 season totals were good for best in the league.  What am I talking about?  Goals scored in the league season.

This year the Giants yet again lead that category, by a long way, with 134 goals in 35 games played.  That’s good for 3.83 goals per game.  Before their December slump they where averaging over four goals per game.  It’s simple, the Giants are the league’s most offensively gifted team and have been since the inception of the Elite League back in 2003.  They play a run and gun style that many teams cannot match and are recognised throughout the league as an offensive force.

Only in 2004-2005 when Coventry won the league where they bettered in the goals scored department.

Should the Giants keep up their current scoring form by the leagues end after 54 games they will have scored 207 goals becoming only the second team in Elite league history to score over 200 goals in a season…  The other was the 03-04 Belfast Giants (a team that interestingly struggled for wins all season and finished 4th).

The Giants have always relied on goal scoring forwards to help them win games and this season is no different.  With guys like Curtis Huppe, Jason Ruff, Mark Dutiaume and Jeff Hutchins on your team you are always going to get goals.  That’s before you add in George Awada who this year has concentrated his game more on a defensive aspect than pure goal getting.  Even at that however he’s bagged 16 on the season.  As of writing the Giants had four guys already passed the twenty goal plateau and there’s every reason to believe four could score over thirty in the season.

Jeff Hutchin’s is one of the season’s biggest surprises.  In came into Belfast with the fans expecting a hard working, second line centerman who would throw hits, drop the gloves and play a defensive game on a defensive line alongside Shawn Skiehar and George Awada.  Last year in Coventry the Canadian power forward scored just 19, he’s already eclipsed that with 21 and been one of the signings of the season of any team.  With his penalty minute count way down on last year and his scoring way up, Hutchy has found a new game in Belfast.

Prior to this season only two players have been thirty goal scorers in the regular season - Jason Ruff (37), Brad Kenny (32) in the 03-04 season.  With the very real potential of four scoring thirty it’s going to be very exciting offensive hockey at the Odyssey for the rest of the season and in the foreseeable future.  Below is a look at the five scoring forwards and the total they are targeted to hit going by the ratio they’ve been scoring at so far this season:

Jason Ruff - 35
Curtis Huppe - 31
Jeff Hutchins - 31
Mark Dutiaume - 29
George Awada -  23

Oh, there’s also the added incentive for Jason Ruff and Curtis Huppe as they race towards the first Giants player to score 100 goals all-time for the team, but more on that in a few days…

The Giants fortunes have turned in recent games with three straight wins on the trot.  That’s mainly down to coach Ed Courtenay’s shaking up of the lines and threatening to release a player and hit the ice himself.  Thankfully for now he can remain behind the bench and thats down to the Giants’ impressive 12 goals in their last three games. 

Sitting at the game against Hull on Saturday I wanted to see who was the form players statistically and who had been struggling in front of goal lately and this is what I’ve come up with.

Of course, statistics (especially when I’m only factoring in goals and assists) are not everything, and a player not racking up the points is not always a player playing poor, but this gives you an idea as to who’s on form in front of goal and who’s been slumping.

HOT:

Mark Dutiaume: With 17 points in 10 games Mark is the hottest player over this span.  He’s also got a 3 game point streak going with 6 points in them 3 games.

Curtis Huppe: Points in 9 of the last 10 games Huppe also has goals in each of his last four games for five in all.

Jason Ruff: 15 points in his last 10 games theres only three in which he’s failed to score giving him 6 multi-point games.

Jeff Hutchins: 10 points in 10 games but betters Ruff in that he’s only failed to score in two of them last ten.

COLD:

Gareth Martin: Very limited ice time has Gareth Martin without a single point all season so far.

Roman Gavalier: One assist for just one point in his last 12 games for the defensive defenseman.  Understandable as his general play has been superb.

Todd Kelman: Started off the first few months of the season averaging a point per game from the blue line.  Has cooled off of late with just two points (0+2) in his last 13.

George Awada:  Only one goal in his last ten games for the captain, however George is getting the helpers - he’s got seven of them in the last ten.

It’s been more than two weeks since the previous rankings but the Giants haven’t played much in recent weeks and I wanted to wait until they had at least three games played since ver 6.0 to try balance out the rankings. December was a tough month for the Giants and seen them fall away from the top of the rankings for the first time this season down into 6th place. Thankfully they have got their scoring form back again and tightened up in defence in recent games giving them a +8 in 3 games played, good enough to top the rankings again.

Rival teams like Coventry have been slipping at times but still out scoring their oposition for the most part - just. Cardiff have really fell away lately dropping from 2nd to 8th but it’s Basingstoke who have really fell apart. After a huge run of form that seen them make the suprising leap into 1st place in 6.0 they crashed bad the last few weeks going -11 in 6 and falling to last place.

Enjoy…

1.  (6)  Belfast Giants             +8 / 3gp  =  2.67
2.  (3)  Coventry Blaze             +9 / 9gp  =  1.00
3.  (5)  Newcastle Vipers           +3 / 7gp  =  0.43
4.  (7)  Sheffield Steelers         +3 / 8gp  =  0.38
5.  (10) Hull Stingrays             -1 / 5gp  = -0.20
6.  (9)  Nottingham Panthers        -4 / 6gp  = -0.67
7.  (4)  Manchester Phoenix         -3 / 4gp  = -0.75
8.  (2)  Cardiff Devils             -9 / 8gp  = -1.13
9.  (8)  Edinburgh Capitals         -9 / 8gp  = -1.13
10. (1)  Basingstoke Bison          -11/ 6gp  = -1.83

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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Remember Rocket Rod Stevens?  You should do, he played 3 great years in Belfast, remains our top 10 all time points scorers and is still doing us favours.  After a few years on mainland Europe he returned this season to British hockey but to play for our rivals the Nottingham Panthers.  Last night he scored the game winning goal in the Panthers game against Coventry on a short handed play to deny Coventry any points from the contest leaving them now only joint top with us with one game in hand.

During our terrible December slump there was a stage when Coventry had five games in hand and lay only a handful of points back but a little slump of their own capped off by a 6-4 defeat to third place Nottingham last night has kept the Giants right in contention when many thought the Blaze would walk off into the distance by winning them games in hand.

Coventry sit in first place on total wins, the first time since the very start of the season that the Giants have not led the league, and still have one game in hand but the last few weeks have shown that just as easily that any team can beat the Giants so too can any team beat the Blaze.

On this day four years ago David Matsos scores the opening goal at 1:08 into the first periodof a 2-2 tie with the London Knights making it the 500th goal in Giants history.  The Matsos goal is assisted by Ryan Kuwabara and Robby Sandrock. 

Dave Matsos played two years for the Giants and the 02-03 season was the second one.  He went on to spend a year in Bracknell, two in Cardiff before taking up the coaching roll with the Sheffield Steelers this season after his career was cut short due to serious back injuries.  He continues in his roll as Steelers coach to this day.

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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On this day seven years ago Colin Ward scored the first hat trick in Giants history.  It wasn’t enough to win the game however as the Giants went down 5-3 against Cardiff Devils in Cardiff.  Wardy would go on to play four full seasons in Belfast and that hat trick was just three of 14 goals the Canadian winger scored that season.

The gap between rankings has been three weeks this time out instead of the usual two so apologies for that but I just didn’t feel up to putting them together during the Christmas week. There was to much Turkey to eat and beer to drink. While away thought the rankings have certainly seen plenty of changes as some teams have played as many as eight games over the holiday season.

Basingstoke where the huge winners over the festive season while the Giants looked like they partied a little to hard and it has seen them fall to their worst slump and position in the power rankings so far this year.

So without further ado, here’s the power rankings to finish up 2006 and a look at who came through the Christmas period in the best form.

1.  (8)  Basingstoke Bison          +8 / 5gp  =  1.60
2.  (6)  Cardiff Devils             +7 / 7gp  =  1.00
3.  (3)  Coventry Blaze             +2 / 3gp  =  0.67
4.  (7)  Manchester Phoenix         +2 / 3gp  =  0.67
5.  (1)  Newcastle Vipers           +1 / 8gp  =  0.13
6.  (2)  Belfast Giants             -2 / 7gp  = -0.29
7.  (10) Sheffield Steelers         -2 / 6gp  = -0.33
8.  (9)  Edinburgh Capitals         -3 / 4gp  = -0.75
9.  (5)  Nottingham Panthers        -5 / 6gp  = -0.83
10. (4)  Hull Stingrays             -8 / 7gp  = -1.14

Ver 1.0
Ver 2.0
Ver 3.0
Ver 4.0
Ver 5.0