For the first time in playoff final history, the final was shown live on Sky Sports 2, which was ideal for those of us who couldn’t be in Nottingham and so for me personally the timing couldn’t have been better. So at 4 p.m. yesterday afternoon I cracked a cold beer, sat down on the recliner, and settled in for the game. The first two periods of the game had the Giants struggling badly, yet they somehow took a 2 goal lead during the second frame. The breakout passes from the Giants team were poor and the turnover rate very high and only Jeffrey Szwez and Brandon Benedict appeared to be really stepping up for the Giants team over the course of the entire game. Nobody else was playing badly, but other than the two mentioned players, the rest were drifting in and out of the game and Cardiff must have been wondering how they were behind after being the better team through the two periods? But then, just seconds after the Giants made it 2-0 through a tip-in by George Awada, with Brandon Benedict scoring a similar such goal not long before, the Devils struck with their first goal and only minutes later tied it up as the period came to a close. They fully deserved to be level with a period to play.

The third period seen the Giants start to finally play Hockey on a consistent basis as the Devils started to tire. The longer the period went on the more I felt the Giants were going to find a way to win it, but as it turned out the Giants had scored two goals while not playing so well, yet when they were putting together their best periods of play they couldn’t get the puck past their ex-goalie Stevie Lyle, who like Stephen Murphy at the other end, was putting up a fine display. Who would have thought back when the Giants won their last playoff crown in 2003 that seven years down the line when they next got to the final that two British goalies would be between the pipes? Who would have thought it would take seven years to get back? But that thought aside, the two British goalies were on their game.

Overtime brought more end to end Hockey as I hoped the Giants would win it before it went to the dreaded penalty shootout. Now of course, I’d rather the Giants win it in a shootout than lose it in overtime, but I wasn’t excited about the prospect of the game being won and lost in a glorified skills competition but as the ten minute overtime ticked down it was getting more and more clear that neither goalie was going to blow it for their team. The game was becoming a goalie duel and probably the only man on the ice that looked like he could swing the result was Jeffrey Szwez. He couldn’t though and the contest indeed headed for the penalties.

It was tough to watch, but through my hands I forced myself to watch what was happening on the TV screen. First up was Max Birbraer who missed and he was followed by Evan Cheverie who also failed to find the net. Wes Jarvis, Tom Walsh, Mark Smith and Jeffrey Szwez all went next and all missed. Szwez had come up big in the semi-final with two shootout goals but couldn’t repeat it tonight, so when it went into sudden death and Max Birbraer missed his shot, Evan Cheverie got to go again and this time had the winning shot on his stick. He came in, considered deaking for a split second but then before those of us watching could think what me might do he snapped a wrist shot, hard and high and right into the top right corner of the net. The crowd went wild, Cheverie wheeled away with his arms up and I jumped across my living room, but for a split second I had to tell myself that this goal had won it, regardless of the fact that I knew before he took the shot that scoring it would have won it. Cheverie himself seemed to take longer to realise. Celebrating like he’d just scored one of the three in the shootout, but not thee one, he eventually realised, threw down his gloves and sticks and jumped into the arms of the on rushing team that had come charging off the bench to join the celebrations.

The medals were presented to each player before the trophy presentation proper. Captain Colin Shields, the EIHL player of the year, came up, grabbed the trophy and then skated hard to the corner of the arena were the Giants fans were seated to raise it to be cheers. As he turned around he could be seen asking, “Where’s Johnny? Where’s Johnny?,” before notcing him, skating too him and handing him the trophy to next raise up. That was Shane Johnson, just finished his final Giants game and the final Hockey game of his long successful career. Shane, who has been with the Giants since the clubs first ever game was going out in fine style, a playoff champions and with the trophy above his head. Next in line was Mark Morrison, another player rumored to be leaving the club at the seasons end but who has given some great service to the club over the years. He may have been on the bench throughout this game, but when he’s been called on over the years to either play a gritty forechecking shift to give the top line players a breather, or even get into a scrap, he’s always answered the bell. Stephen Murphy took the trophy next – the best goalie in the Elite League this season and one the Giants must look to retain next season – and so the trophy went round each player who go their turn to raise it before the Giants fans.

Looking over the players standing on the ice waiting on their trophy the camera panned across Rob Stewart. A legend of the Belfast Giants but a quiet man of the organisation, Rob’s part in the Giants successes in recent seasons has been massivly underrated. While Steve Thornton has been a terriffic coach the past two years for the Giants having lead them to the Challenge Cup and Knockout cup last year and now the playoff title this season, he has also spent a fair amount of time taking shifts on the ice while Rob Stewart has been the man in the shirt and tie behind the bench, looking for things Thornton might miss while on the ice, and keeping things running well. Rob Stewart might have had a tough year as coach in his only season in charge of the Giants in 03/04 following their previous playoff victory, but most of the troubles that year were very much out of his hands, and this season he has really proved himself as a fine bench boss when the coach himself is adding to the performances on the ice. Rob Stewart, like the GM Todd Kelman and the outgoing champion Shane Johnson, has been with the organisation since the first season and it was great to see him become a champions yet again.

And now into the summer, another off season and the rumour mill will officially open. Following their 2003 playoff success the Giants had the most turbulant summer of them all when the team looked like it might fold for a while before just about scraping an organisation together and a set of players to enter the season but this time around the summer of 2010 promises to be one of more calm waters. While the likes of Awada, Johnson and Morrison may well move on and pass the torch to a new era of players, the Giants will not likely have finacial woes and Steve Thornton can go about retaining a solid core of this years team while recruiting some new faces that will help the Giants retain their competitive edge that has seen them win this playoff championship while hoping to go one point better in the league and win that as well.

Enjoy your summers and revel in the clubs success.

The show has just started and one of the analysits is Steelers coach and ex-Giant Dave Matsos. The year the Giants won the trophy in ’03 he scored one of the goals.

Enjoy.

I’ve been to 7 playoff weekends and only once has the Giants actually got to the final (going on to win it in 2003). So now they’re back there, I’m going to have to make-do with the TV coverage. Saying that, I shouldn’t be so dismissive of the ‘TV coverage,’ for this is the first time ever the playoff final has been broadcast live on TV and the timing couldn’t have been better; I’m not there, I’m back in the UK for the first time in 15-months, and I’ve a Sunday afternoon to waste.

Nottingham are the team in the EIHL that everyone loves to hate, at least everyone who supports the Steelers and the Giants and when the Giants put them out last night they left the Panthers without a league or playoff trophy yet again and the fans lapped it up. The Giants took an early lead before blowing a late goal which sent the game into overtime. Just like in 2003 when the Giants last won the playoff championship, their semi-final ended in a tight scoreline (0-0 against Sheffield that year) to go into overtime and a shootout. The Giants never do things the easy way so the shootout was inevitable and it was Jeff Szwez one of the Giants most clutch players this season and perhaps of all-time who delivered the goods with two goals in the shootout to book the Giants place in the final. In 2003 it was Kevin Riehl’s shootout heroics that put the Giants into the final and back then when they reached the final it was two goals by Shane Johnson who helped the Giants win the thing over London Knights. This year the game will be the last professional Hockey game by Shane Johnson and wouldn’t it be nice to see him go out with another big performance and victory.

So far it’s been a wonderful weekend of sport for a Giants and Liverpool fan. United lost to Chelsea, Spurs lost to Sunderland and Coventry are out of the playoffs. And that is a very nice set of welcome gifts upon my return to Belfast for my first visit in fifteen months and a nice consolation for not being able to make the playoff final weekend for the second time in a row now.

Coventry Blaze v Cardiff Devils @ 1p.m.

Belfast Giants v Nottingham Panthers @ 5 p.m.

And great news folks, the final itself will be live on Sky Sports 2 at 5 p.m.