Currently the Giants are stuck in the middle of the second period against Edinburgh with the game delayed due to a hole in the ice in front of one of the goals. We’ve had six men out on the ice staring into a hole – a typical site around Belfast – and we’ve had three or four fire extinguishers used to try combat the problem with Co2 leaving the Odyssey Arena a probable fire hazard due to a lack of extinguishers left. No word yet on the game being officially postponed but if the problem cannot be fixed couldn’t they just bus the players up to Dundonald in full kit and have the fans follow after in their cars and finish the game up there?

Update: The Giants game was cancelled with news to follow on what happens to the fixture now? But that is what you get for ice fishing during a Hockey game.

The Giants took on the Steelers this weekend in two games that turned into two high scoring classics. In one the Giants, in front of their home crowd, had to come from behind to take a big win before going to Sheffield and beating the Steelers again by a single goal, 6-5. It was perfect hockey full of end to end goals, good atmosphere and lots of fighting. I just wish I could have been there – I didn’t even get to see the webcast.

Aside from all the goals flying into the net – which I can’t really talk much about having not been there and having not seen footage of, the games were billed as a chance to find out who is the EIHL’s heavyweight champions when it comes to the fighting side of the game.

Sean McMorrow took on Mike Sgroi in Belfast and won, and then a night later in Sheffield he beat him again which seemed to infuriate Sgroi as he chased McMorrow down after the fight was broken up like a nutcase, continuing the fight and getting beaten further. He then went after McMorrow again after they came out of the box, and yes, you can guess the outcome.

The night of fighting was rounded out when lightweights Tim Cook and Robert Farmer went at it with the Giants completing the clean sweep in the fights over the two games, and a little later on the clean sweep in the results also.

Here is a look at the fight video’s: Read More»

All season one of the things many believe has been standing between the Giants and potentially winning the league title is failing to beat the Coventry Blaze time and time again. It seems like for seasons now the Blaze team have been the team that the Giants just cannot solve and again this year the points lost to the Blaze were the points keeping them out of first place. But tonight the Giants took a first step to overcoming that hurdle and getting right into the title race by beating the Blaze 2-1 in the Odyssey arena putting them just three points back on the Blaze having played a game more. To prove how tough the Blaze have been to overcome over the years for the Giants this win was just their 16th against the Blaze in 53 games between the two rivals.

They meet again on two more occasions, both on the road and these games could well prove vital to the outcome of the championship. Winning both these games could indeed vault the Giants into first place but if beating the Blaze at all was the first hurdle, then beating them on the road in their own barn is the next one and it is bigger still.

The Giants took a first period lead in the contest through man-of-the-match Jeff Szwez who put in a real team effort all night long and was a big factor in the Giants win and would also go on to assist on the Giants game winner. Coventry tied it up mid-way through the contest though on the power play and it was late in the second when the Giants grabbed the all important and decisive goal through Pat Bateman that would stand as the game winner. Into the final five minutes and the Giants decided to shut up shop and sit back trying to hold onto the lead, striking fear into the Odyssey crowd. What was a risky move paid off though and the Blaze could not take advantage as the Giants took the huge victory.

Tomorrow night the Giants are in Nottingham for a game against the third place Panthers who tonight lost a big one to rivals Sheffield, a result which definitely played into the hands of the Giants. Here’s hoping our boys to continue this form.

I got the recent edition of the Elite Stats Weekly e-mail into my inbox this evening which is packed full of information on teams and players across the Elite League. I had a skim through and even used some of the numbers to help me get the site back up-to-date but also seen some interesting statistics that I had a closer look at.

Colin Shields is leading the Elite League in points scoring with 81 in total, five ahead of Jade Galbraith (the leagues primary set-up man with 57 assists in 49 games) of Nottingham and nine up on Greg Chambers of Coventry. Shields is on a torrid pace and if he keeps up the current rate of scoring he should finish the regular season having played 64 games and scoring 45 goals and 101 points, smashing any previous Giants records for goals and points in a season. He is second in goal scoring with 36 to Coventry’s Luke Fulghum who sits on 40 goals.

Jeff Szwez is another Giants player leading a category with six short handed goals, one ahead of Jeff Legue of Sheffield. David Clarke of Nottingham leads the league in powerplay goals with 14. Evan Cheverie is Mr. Clutch for the Giants with five game winning goals – Adam Calder leads with eight.

Then there is the physical side of the game with penalty minutes and Sean McMorrow of the Giants leads that category also with a massive 344 in total, 40 ahead of Brad Voth of Cardiff who sits on 314. Third place is ex-Giant Jeff Hutchins all the way down on 197. At this current pace Sean McMorrow looks set to hit 458 penalty minutes for the year which is a staggering number considering the all-time record by a Giants player in a season is currently Paxton Schulte with 424 from 2003/04.

Between the pipes the Giants come out top again through Stephen Murphy who leads the league in save percentage with a total of .922 ahead of Peter Hirsch of Coventry on .919 and Michel Robinson of Newcastle on .914. Murphy also leads in goals against average with 2.30 ahead of Kevin St. Pierre of Nottingham on 2.80 and ex-Giants tender, Stevie Lyle now of Cardiff on 2.82.

So what about team stats?

Ask any Giants fan and they’ll tell you the penalty killing is pretty good but the powerplay is awful and the stats don’t lie. The Giants have the third worst powerplay in the Elite League with a 17% hit rate compared to the leagues best of 23.4% from Sheffield. It’s surprising that considering the Giants are actually second in the standings with Sheffield second last. Shorthanded the Giants are much stronger coming in second best in the league on 83.9% behind Sheffield who sit on 84.4%. Very very strange Sheffield leading both powerplay and shorthanded categories yet struggling so much in the standings overall.

In goals per game the Giants are always high on the charts. Ever since the teams inception in 2000/01 the team have always been known as an offence first team and one that has been high up, if not leading, the goals per game ratio. This year is no different with the team currently second in goals per game with 3.9, just 0.2 behind Coventry who lead on 4.1 goals per game. At home the Giants are averaging an impressive 4.5 goals per game - not bad from a Giants team who some fans believe are lacking up front.. For what it is worth the Stingrays bring up the rear with a poor 2.5 goals per game. The Giants also lead the shots on goal totals with an average of 37.6 per game and sit second last in penalty minutes per game with 22.7 dispelling theories that the referees in the league are anti-Giants or that the team are ill-disciplined.

I’ve spent the last little while updating the fight section on the site, giving it a full revamp. I’ve tracked down lost fights, old video’s as well as updating all-time statistics as individual season statistics. Fights are broken down to individual seasons with details of each fight as well as fighting majors for the season per player and against individual teams. In the coming weeks and months I hope to add in profiles of individual players and their fight stats – enough to keep the Giants fight fan busy for a while!

Of course, there’s only videos of fights I could fine but if you see any fights without a video link, let me know and I’ll be sure to link it up.

For interests sake, Did you know:

- Sean McMorrow has now had more fights in a single season (20) than any other Giants season.

- The Giants have had more fights this season (35) than in any other season before.

- Paxton Schulte has had more fights than any Giants player in team history with 31. Shawn Skiehar is second on 21 with Jason Bowen and Sean McMorrow on 20.

- There have been 132 fights at home games and 125 on the road with four occasions when there have been four fights in a single game and one occasions when a player has had three fights in a single game (Shawn Skiehar).

- In December 2000 the Giants got into 14 fights in one month.

The homepage of the Giants fighting information can be found here with links to individual seasons.