Nathan Craze picked up his first career EIHL shutout, his team-mates put four past the Edinburgh Capitals in Dundonald and the Giants roared back to the top of the league thanks to the Panthers blowing a late lead against Newcastle. It’s been quite a month for the Giants topped off by the signing of Jeff Szwez who added to his four points in his first two games by picking up a goal and two assists tonight. He was joined in the scoring by Craig Peacock and Tom Walsh who scored a brace. The Giants have now won seven game in-a-row out of the nine they have played this month and finally look like a team that could well challenge for major trophies this season.

Their position at the top of the league is not completely secure however, they may hold an equal games played lead over second and third placed Nottingham and Cardiff respectively, but Coventry in forth sit just three points back with four games in hand and even Newcastle down in fifth are just four points back with three in hand. You can even go as far as seventh to find a team that can still overtake the Giants if they were to play their next six games before the Giants iced again to level the Giants in games played. That team is Edinburgh though their consistency in the early going suggests they won’t make up the ground, especially after tonight’s defeat. If you haven’t seen me mention reigning champs, Sheffield, that would be because they are languishing down in sixth place with just eight points from twelve games. A crisis in Sheffield isn’t far away and last night Matsos threatened changes.

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“To these players,” says Ed Courtenay, gesturing towards his team coach, “this is the NHL.”

Remember Ed Courtenay? How could you forget. He was our stick tossing, high scoring, play making on/off player coach for three years. He was a line-mate to Theo Fleury, one of the most devastating duo’s ever to play together in British Hockey history. Yep, how ever could you forget. Well, he is still playing, still toiling out there on the minor-pro-bush-league circuit, a mercenary, a soldier of fortune, a one time NHLer now playing at a level below the British Elite League. Courtenay is in it for the money and for the love of the game and Ollie Williams of the BBC ran an excellent article on Courtenay’s journey from the NHL to Altrincham where he continues his playing career alongside the man he replaced as coach at the Giants, Tony Hand.

“As much as I wanted to get to 20 years, I was ready in year 17. But the job market out there is not the easiest, is it? Out there in the real world. And if you do have a job, you’re not giving it up to get on the dole. So it worked out for both of us: the team and myself.

— Ed Courtenay, Oct ’09

GTV has put up onto YouTube what I believe is their first two video’s of the season. The first one is an interview with Pat Bateman after his fight with the Edinburgh goalie last week and the second is an interview with newboy Jeff Szewz. Sean McMorrow is doing that interview and certainly appears to have a nack for for the media side of the game, an area he might want to explore when he finishes his playing career!

A fine 5-2 win tonight in Newcastle. After a close battle for the first two periods the Giants took over in the third and won a game that confirms their place in the Challenge Cup semi-final as the slow start to the season becomes a further distant memory and things continue to get better and better. Newboy Jeff Szwez had another two point night to continue his fine start to the season while McMorrow got onto the boxscore, not for his fighting skills, but for the scoring touch tonight when he also added a goal and an assist.

McMorrow has had it tough from some quarters of the Giants fanbase, even before he touched the ice for the club, but since arriving he has proved them wrong with his ability to turn the game by lifting the crowd and his bench via his fists through intimidation of the opposition and has now got into the scoring side of things. It’s been a feel good story and a great one to see develop as the team has come together so well over the last few weeks knocking up win after win.

Normally when you win 3-0 all the attention is around the goalie for picking up the shutout and while nothing will be taken away from Murphy for another fine performance between the pipes, all the talk will centre around new boy Jeff Szwez and his two goal debut performance. He only met up with his new team-mates earlier in the week but seems to have settled immediately as seen by tonights showing. Not only did the result come against the Panthers, but against the league leading Panthers and was enough to jump the Giants to the top of the Elite League table. Thank you Jeff Szwez. Read More»