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.

Voting is complete for the starting line-ups for the EIHL all-star game on 27 January at Ice Sheffield and the announcements of who has made the team, especially from the Giants, has raised some eyebrows, but reminded us the risks involved with fan votes.

Stephen Murphy, Colin Shields and Jeff Szwez all made it, and rightly so, but Sean McMorrow, enforcer for the Giants and a fan favorite, has also been voted onto the team and while McMorrow is great to watch, even he would admit that he is a little out of place on an ‘all-star’ team in that sense of the word.
But then again, this is a popularity contest among EIHL fans and people want to see McMorrow and while he won’t fight or even hit, no doubt he’ll be entertaining in some capacity.

The Elite British All-Stars, coached by Sheffield’s Dave Matsos, will be back-stopped by Stephen Murphy of the Belfast Giants. Patrolling the blueline will be Coventry’s Jonathan Weaver and Stevie Lee from the Nottingham Panthers. Completing the line-up are forwards Colin Shields (Belfast Giants), David Clarke (Nottingham Panthers) and Lee Esders (Hull Stingrays).

The Overseas All-Stars, will be coached by Nottingham Panthers’ Corey Neilson. In-between the pipes will be Peter Hirsch of the Coventry Blaze, while defencemen Dominic D’Amour (Nottingham Panthers) and Adam Knight (Hull Singrays) have been selected at the back. Belfast Giants’ enforcer Sean McMorrow and team-mate Jeff Szwez will be joined by Panthers’ leading goalscorer Jade Galbraith to complete the line-up.

— eliteleague.co.uk, 6 Jan’10

Some fans will be frustrated about fan voting making a mockery out of an all-star game, but lets face it, this isn’t a serious game – it’s a gimmick – so why not have some fun with it by indeed letting fans vote. The rest of the teams will be selected by the respective coaches and I would expect the import all-stars to win pretty comfortably.

By the way, is there a skills competition?

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.

Reports from the game suggest 8-2 was a little flattering for the Giants but regardless, I think they deserved to win! Most of all however the win throws the Giants up on top of the Elite League even though Coventry in second have games in had. Still, one can only hope they slip up and I’d rather lead than chase regardless of games-in-hand. The Giants have quite a few games against Coventry between now and the end of the season and it looks like those games well have a big say in the destination of the league title. Jeff Szwez was the man-of-the-match for the Giants and picked up his first hat trick for the club in a four point night. The other goals came by way of Benedict, Bateman, Phillips, Shields and Walsh.

Following tonight’s thumping of the Panthers the Giants have now had nine, yep just nine, shutouts away from home (37 in total) in their history and Stephen Murphy has two of them, both back-to-back. That’s 22% of all away game shutouts in the ten year history of our club. 4-0 was the score in game two of the home and home series with the Panthers to give the Giants all four point and an aggregate score of 10-3. Nottingham who were top of the table going into the weekend now find themselves in second with a three way tie for first place on points with the Giants and Blaze on 26 points. The problem for the Panthers after this disaster weekend is that they have played 22 games compared to the Giants 19 and Blaze’s 16.

Games in hand are only good if you win them but the Giants and Blaze are certainly throwing down a message to the Panthers that they will have to pick it up or risk falling behind. For the Giants the weekend couldn’t have went off better. Four points clawed back on Nottingham and holding pace with Coventry.

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