Flights have been cancelled all over the UK today due to a large dust cloud reportedly caused by a volcanic eruption in Iceland. The truth behind the dust cloud however appears to be much simpler having been caused by the annual cleaning of the Nottingham Panthers trophy cabinet.

Hope nobody has been too badly effected.

Late last night I was very tempted to get onto the Internet and book a flight, any flight, to England and somehow make my way to Nottingham for 4 p.m. to watch the playoff final now that the Giants are actually playing in it. I’ve waited 6 years for the Giants to get into the playoff final again and now that they finally have, I’m not able to be there to enjoy it. I can only imagine the craic in the bars around Nottingham last night and the celebrations of the Giants fans as their team eliminated the big rich Nottingham Panthers in a shootout. WInning a playoff game in a shootout sounds disgraceful, but it’s the only way in a tournament were the semi’s are on the Saturday and the final on the Sunday but if the game is going to go the shootout, you may as well win it.

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.

Tonight’s games that will effect the title race are as follows:
(All times by the British clock)

Belfast Giants v Edinburgh Capitals @ 5 p.m.
Coventry Blaze v Sheffield Steelers @ 6 p.m.
Cardiff Devils v Nottingham Panthers @ 6 p.m.

5:45 p.m. The Giants have finished the first period and lead 2-0 with two big goals by Jeff Szwez. One text I have gotten from the game tells me that this guy is by far the best player on the team. No surprise there, the guy is clutch.

5:49 p.m. Coventry and Nottingham are yet to get underway but as of right now the table looks as follows:

1 Belfast 54gp 71pts
2 Coventry 52gp 70pts
3 Nottingham 52gp 68pts

5:55 p.m. Second period underway again for the Giants and the other two games will be getting underway any moment now.

6:05 p.m. Coventry leading Sheffield 2-1 already after just a few minutes of action. No score in Cardiff.

6:17 p.m. Awada scores with four left in the second period to make it 3-0 Giants. Surely they don’t blow this game now? It’s the second goal tonight for the Giants on the PP and they are now 2-3 tonight with the man advantage – rare.

6:35 p.m. Craig Peacock makes it 4-0 Giants with just over a minute to go in the 2nd period but Sheffield are 4-1 down to Coventry after just one period so it looks like Coventry will retain their league lead tonight. The good news is that Nottingham are being beat 1-0 in Cardiff.

7:05 p.m. Having never had it so easy the Giants take the win, 4-0, outshooting the Capitals 59-16. Unfortunately though the Blaze are beating the Steelers 4-1 in the second though the Panthers are losing 1-0 to Cardiff.

7:13 p.m. League standings at the minute:

1 Coventry 53gp 72pts
2 Belfast 54gp 71pts
3 Nottingham 53gp 68pts

7:38 p.m. Cardiff now two up on Nottingham but no change in the score at Coventry.

9:09 p.m. Coventry now 5-2 up in the third, Nottingham still 2-0 down.

9:25 p.m. Coventry squeak it 5-4 in the end. Sheffield ran them close it seems but they got the two points that matters.

9:53 p.m. Cardiff beat Nottingham 3-0 and put them far enough behind that even if they win their game in hand they will still trail the Giants. They need Coventry to fall apart to have any chance and the Giants have got to feel good about finishing second now.

TABLE:

1 Coventry 53gp 72pts
2 Belfast 54gp 71pts
3 Nottingham 53gp 68pts

All the Giants can do is win their final two games to move to 75 points which would include beating Coventry and hope that they take no more than two points from their other two games.

With only a handful of games remaining the title fight really is on and all three teams are in action tonight. Below is a look at the top 3 with games played out of the 56 in all and points in total along with a look at their remaining games including tonight’s. Edinburgh look like they will have a big factor in the title hunt and if the Giants are to win, having already played a game more than the other two, they’ll require each of them to slip up once and for the Giants to beat Coventry in the final game of the season, in Coventry. No easy task but it’s all up for grabs…

1 Coventry – 52gp – 70pts
2 Belfast – 53gp – 69pts
3 Nottingham – 52gp – 68pts

Coventry games remaining:
14 Mar v Sheffield
18 Mar v Edinburgh
20 Mar @ Edinburgh
21 Mar v Belfast

Giants games remaining:
14 Mar v Edinburgh
20 Mar v Newcastle
21 Mar @ Coventry

Panthers games remaining:
14 Mar @ Cardiff
17 Mar v Edinburgh
20 Mar @ Sheffield
21 Mar @ Newcastle

It is funny how fickle sports fans are. Just a week ago the fans of the Giants were booing their team off the ice following a sub-par performance yet one week on the fanbase is full of praise for the effort and resolve to overcome league leaders Nottingham in back-to-back games in the Odyssey arena.

I know I’m late with any kind of report and if you are reading this you likely know exactly what happened at the game, but I thought I’d write a little bit of praise on the team for bouncing back. It’s way to easy to be critical when they are struggling and I was quick to point the finger of blame at coach Steve Thornton, but he rallied the troops in the right way during the week and they came up big this weekend.

By all accounts the crowds were big, the play was fast, the games were tight and exciting and overall the two nights of hockey, especially the Saturday, were throwbacks to some Giants games of old when the crowds were big, loud and the team hit hard and won big games.

The win keeps the Giants in the title race, five points behind Coventry having played the same number of games and two behind Nottingham with two games in hand. Coventry are big favorites but there are enough games left for things to change and the Giants fans will be hoping this weekends effort can continue on for the remainder of the season.

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.

Read More»

Game one of the home and home series with the Nottingham Panthers is done and it is advantage Belfast heading to Nottingham tomorrow night. The Giants downed one of their biggest contenders for the league title 6-3 tonight in front of a loud Belfast crowd that got to see a high scoring physical game of hockey – a throwback to the Giants – Panthers games of old that will no doubt have stirred the memories of many. The Giants got two goals from Brits Craig Peacock and Colin Shields while skilled/tough guy Jeff Szwez was ejected from the game for cross-checking and fighting.

Szwez was cross-checked by Panther Corey Neilson as part of a ploy by the Panthers to wind Szwez up. It worked and Szwez retaliated by cross-checking Neilsen in what some are saying was the neck region. It put Neilsen down and coming to his rescue was Cameroon Mann who was quickly pummeled earning Szwez the ejection. Some will be concerned about Szwez’s discipline given the fact other teams are starting to target the Giants most dangerous player, but the Giants still won the game so it didn’t hurt them and the only one hurting in the morning might well be Neilson, and I sure hope that is the case.

Read More»

Sean McMorrow is set to drop his gloves for the Giants cause again tonight and is making sure everyone is aware of it in the media prior to the Giants double header with Nottingham this weekend. In a potential battle to see who leads the Elite League after the weekend the two teams will do battle with the puck and it seems with their fists.

McMorrow’s latest challenge is to Panthers newboy, Mario Larocque who comes with a tough reputation but one which McMorrow wants to put to the test. He feels Larocque would be doing his team-mate Bergin a favor by stepping up as McMorrow has fought and beat him twice this year.

Read More»

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»

NOTTINGHAM V BELFAST
HULL V BELFAST
5-6/9/09

And so we have it. The first weekend of Giants Hockey 09/10 is behind us, all the good feelings are gone and we are back into the depths of another hockey season. Thornton’s first mistake of the year was allowing this teams chances of a perfect undefeated season to slip away at the very first game … how dare we lose one and lose one so early at that. Fingers were pointed following the defeat to Nottingham and questions were asked about Thornton’s goaltender selection given that Murphy was supposedly ‘50-50′ to make the start just 24-hours earlier having been an injury risk and about the ice time handed to Sean McMorrow. Rational explanations such as McMorrow carrying a bit of an injury were ignored, at least until the following night when the team put things to right with a 3-2 victory over that British Hockey juggernaught, Hull. Read More»