It’s been a seven year wait for the hundreds of Giants fans that take themselves to Nottingham year-in-year-out looking for their team to deliver the goods, but at long last and for the first time since 2003 the Belfast Giants can call themselves Elite League Playoff Champions again. I wasn’t there this year, but if 2003 taught me anything it is that when the Giants win this trophy the weekend becomes one of the biggest and best parties of the year and no doubt it was great times in Nottingham again last night and this morning plenty of sore heads. The Giants turned around a poor first two periods of play while throwing away a two goal lead to put in a fine effort in the third, a strong overtime and then a tight and tense shootout to win it. A playoff final should never ever be decided by the way of a shootout, but that’s how it is in Britain, and while I don’t agree with it, in this case, I’ll gladly deal with it and revel in the moment that my team are the Champions again, even though I never got to see them in person this year.

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George Awada has scored more goals and more points than any Giants player in team history and tonight he racked up his 300th point in a Giants jersey. The milestone moment came when he scored a goal at 3:20 of the second period in the teams 4-1 win over Cardiff with the assist on the goal going to Pat Bateman. Awada later added his 301st point as a Giant when he grabbed an assist.

It’s been a rough season for Awada with injuries keeping him out of the line-up but he’s back on the ice now and looks set for an extended run in the line-up. It’s great to see a Giants player hit the 300 point mark in just the teams 10th season of existence. Let’s hope George is around for number 400 in a few seasons time.

If you listened to and believed media reports then you wouldn’t have expected to see George Awada back in a Giants jersey this season but whether it was a medical miracle or an injury that was not as bad as reported, the Giants club captain George Awada returned to game action. He picked up two goals on his return as the Giants beat Newcastle 6-2 and all reports suggest he looked full of energy, just glad to be back playing again. Somehow however Mark Morrison, with a handful of shifts in the game that included a fight, did enough to get the man of the match award but that doesn’t really matter because with Jeff Szwez reportedly out for a number of weeks with a hand injury Awada’s return is extremely timely.

Considering some of the great players the Giants have had take to the ice over the years it might come as a surprise to some to hear that Colin Shields currently sits 8th in the all-time Giants points scoring list. But thats the facts and off the back of an outstanding season so far this year he only looks set to climb the charts further. Shields has currently scored 36 points from 23 points and with 39 guaranteed games in the league and challenge cup to go before the end of the regular season and with Shields currently averaging 1.57 points per game it would be fair to assume that if he stays healthy Shields will score a further 61 points. Should he do so that would move him to 242 points putting him just 3 points shy of Jason Ruff. With a couple of playoff games likely it wouldn’t be unrealistic to think Colin could well move into second all-time in points scored for the Giants.

The all-time leader is George Awada on 297 points but he is done for the year with no guarantees whether he will be back in 2010/11 or not. Colin Shields may have flown under the radar a little in his first season with the Giants thanks to Theo Fleury, Ed Courtenay and Jason Ruff all being in the line-up but he has continually put up the points and has now emerged as not only one of the Giants best players but one of their best leaders.

Below is a look at the top 10 points scorers in Giants History:

NO.  PLAYER            POS     GP     G     A   Pts   PIM   P/GP
----------------------------------------------------------------
41   George Awada      RW     307   137   160   297   508   0.97
17   Jason Ruff        LW     193   100   145   245   366   1.27
44   Todd Kelman       D      417    73   141   214   496   0.51
 4   Shane Johnson     D      463    54   140   194   682   0.42
22   Curtis Bowen      C/LW   219    84   103   187   365   0.85
72   Ed Courtenay      RW     124    58   129   187   176   1.51
27   Paxton Schulte    LW     233    81   101   182   975   0.78
18   Colin Shields     C      132    67   114   181    56   1.37
11   Colin Ward        RW     233    84    93   177   172   0.76
39   Curtis Huppe      LW     144    86    87   173   162   1.20

Indeed George Awada was the face of the Giants hockey team in the EIHL era but now his own era as a Belfast Giants might well be over for good following the announcement that he is done for the season due to and injury to the rotator cuff in his shoulder which will require a surgery that carries a 5-6 months rehab period.

At 34-years of age it is hard to imagine Awada getting himself back into the Giants fold eleven months from now though if he does managed to work his way back to fitness you would like to imagine there will always be a place in the team for the captain.

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