Suffice to say, the run-in for Belfast isn’t too kind and they’ll require one hell of a favour from either Newcastle or Braehead to have any shot at the title. And not to forget the Cardiff Devils of course. They sit nicely poised in third, two points back of first but with a game in hand. They could yet win the title and relegate the Giants to third place.

Below is a look at the final games for the three league title fighting sides:

Steelers last 3
A – Newcastle, 13 Mar
A – Braehead, 19 Mar
H – Braehead, 20 Mar

Giants last 3
H – Newcastle, 12 Mar
A – Nottingham, 19 Mar
A – Coventry, 20 Mar

Devils last 4
A – Hull, 12 Mar
H – Nottingham, 13 Mar
H – Coventry, 19 Mar
A – Edinburgh, 20 Mar

To put it bluntly, the Giants absolutely must win their final three games. Newcastle is – sadly – virtually a given, while Nottingham and Coventry are likely to prove a challenge. Sure Coventry are a shadow of their title winning side last year but they have the potential to always be a threat and that should be considered in the fact that if the Giants do finish third, they’ll be playing Coventry in that first round playoff match-up. Second would get them Hull, and the title would have them play Dundee.

But winning those final games in the league season will mean nothing if the Sheffield Steelers don’t somehow buckle under pressure in one (or more) of their games against Braehead and Newcastle. Like the Giants game against Newcastle tomorrow night, a victory for the Steelers is to be expected, so it’ll be the inaugural side from Glasgow that Giants fans will turn to to help them out. They’ve had a very impressive first campaign – looking set to finish in 5th place – but if you’re a Sheffield fan this is still the kind of run in you’d have taken at the start of the year if presented with this scenario.

As for Cardiff, well, much like the Giants they must go through Nottingham and Coventry if they want to win the title, but unlike the Giants they get to host both teams at home. Nottingham remains the Giants best bet to scupper Cardiff’s chances and while Coventry will prove a test, both fixtures are sandwiched by almost certain wins against Hull and Edinburgh.

Still, having watched this sport for well over ten years and seen many a Giants title challenge, one thing I do know is that the most unexpected results usually show up at this time of year and with the pressure on count on this title race having another sting in its tail.

Losing by one or two points would be tough to take and leave the Giants fans wondering all summer where exactly it all went wrong. Was it the bad form over Christmas when I just so happened to be at home to catch my only games of the season, or was it this past week when they lost a big game in Sheffield? But one reason to be optimistic even if things don’t quite go our way: We’ve been here before, fallen short but rebounded to win the playoffs. Just last year Coventry edged us out by just 1 point before our final four success. And even more memorable, in 2002/03 after a successful run in the Continental Cup, the Giants returned on a high, feeding their fans pint glasses of belief that they would storm on and win the league championship only to fall short by 1 point against Sheffield on the final day. A few weeks later they were playoff champions for the first time.

Pointless facts

While checking out the league table for this piece I came across some interesting stats.

* This year the Belfast Giants are third to the Edinburgh Capitals (603) and Braehead Clan (705) in total penalty minutes with just 720. It puts them well on pace for the lowest total number of penalty minutes for a season in team history. The current lowest ever is 978 in the 2001/02 season.

* The team are just forth in the league in goal scoring which is unusual for a Giants team that is normally right up near – or at – the top when it comes to goals per game average. Still, showing how big the gap is between the top and bottom of the Elite League and how many goals the top teams are running up against the smaller sides, the Giants have still averaged 4.25 goals per game which if the season ended now would still be comfortably the most they have ever averaged in a season. Actually, even if they went scoreless the final three league games, they would still break their present best goals per game average of 4.00 in 2008/09 by 0.02. For what it’s worth, the lowest remains the inaugural season in 2000/01 with 3.29.

* And why not sign off on some grim news. While researching the previous topic I noticed just how long it has been since we had the joy of celebrating a league title. It’s easy to forget just how long this team have actually been around now. I sometimes consider the Giants a new team – and in the grand old scheme of hockey history, they are – but considering the comings and goings of the British game the Giants have been around a fair little while now. Success came early and quick with a league title in 2001/02 and we only had to wait four seasons for more of the same in the Theo Fleury season of 2005/06, but it’ll be five full seasons – or almost half our history – since we don’t manage to pip the Steelers and Devils to the crown this year out. Thankfully last seasons playoff success has kept us a trophy winning side of some sort.

The Sheriff appeared on BBC Radio Sheffield talking to their hosts about his teams upcoming double header (this past weekend) against Sheffield Steelers (in which each team won one game a piece) while also having an on-air chit-chat with Steelers new enforcer Mike Sgroi. The chat with Sgroi is the interesting point – an insight into what some of these tough guys think about one another. If you’re looking fireworks and trash talking then don’t bother, the respect is clearly there between these two heavies who have been doing the dirty work for their teams for over a decade now but it is worth tuning in to hear how they set up their fight for the first period of the first game between the two teams. (They did indeed go in the first and McMorrow got the edge).

Detractors will crucify this as them ‘arranging the fight’, but in Hockey this is something McMorrow would be expected to do. He is the leagues top enforcer and when someone new comes in to enforce for his team it’s only right that McMorrow gives him his stage, welcomes him to the league and lets him set a tone for his own team. Thankfully when it did happen McMorrow won the scrap and then the teams got on with the Hockey. The Giants won that one and lost the following night were both big boys kept clear of one another.

McMorrow goes on to say how he’d like every team to carry a player like himself and Sgroi on the line-ups and it’s hard to disagree with him. It would be good to see an extra element of entertainment on top of the skillful hockey some teams are producing and it would help add to the rivalries.

The irony in this radio piece though is that this is the same Sheffield team that earlier in the season said they were going down the skill hockey only route and that McMorrow wouldn’t be able to “buy a fight” against Sheffield but after a poor start to the year they have addressed a potential weakness by adding some toughness to the line-up (or if not to change fortunes at least give the fans something to cheer about) to fight, who else, but Sean McMorrow.

“What kind of guy is he? perhaps the complete opposite of a Brad Voth, Mike Sgroi is a team guy, he puts his team first not him self, he will entertain the fans, protect his team mates and do whatever is best for his fellow players, not necessarily what is best for him self, he is the real deal,” clearly letting us know what kind of player he thinks Voth is at the same time and no doubt sparking their rivalry more.

“Mike is respected by many NHL and AHL tough guys as a clean fighter, he is an honest tough guy, sure he knows his role but he wont cheap shot a guy, he won’t try and beat a guy when he is down, the fans of Sheffield are in for a treat, he is the perfect player for the Steelers and the perfect player for our league,” said McMorrow, again pointing a finger towards Voth who McMorrow feels jumped him the last time they played.

McMorrow went on to say what many of us believe, ”The fans in this league deserved to be entertained, I try and do that and so will Mike Sgroi. The Steelers have a good man, a tough man and a good hockey player, the City will love him.”

Losing the fight reminded me of the Stanley Cup playoffs last year when Philadelphia’s Dan Carcillo beat up on Pittsburgh’s Max Talbot, but the Pitttsburgh players were inspired by their gritty third liners big effort and went on to win the game after trailing and eventually win the series and later the Stanley Cup. Travel the world of hockey and talk to players at all standards and they will all tell you the surge of energy that goes through the bench when one of their players gets into a fight. If your team are having it hard, watching one of your leaders go out and send a message is inspiring to say the least.

If you don’t believe me, then hear what Randy Dagenais, a player on the Steelers bench had to say:

“What we saw tonight from Brad was amazing, for him to fight McMorrow should us what a great team leader he is, you saw our bench everyone was standing and cheering him on

“McMorrow is a top heavyweight and Brad did a great job, his efforts at the start of the night got us all going, then he scores a big goal as well, he was certainly our leader and our man of the match

— Randy Dagenais, 31 Oct ’09

In the grand scheme of things the game didn’t matter drastically to the Giants as it was a Challenge Cup group game of which they are already through to the knockout stages but nobody ever likes to lose, especially when you have been on a winning run of late and with some big games coming up.

The last word will go to McMorrow as many people might wonder why he would give Cruikshank the fight to even allow him the opportunity to give his team some momentum, but the fact is, McMorrow is a fighter, and he knows the code, he knows that sometime he might be looking to give his team a spark and will hope another player will give him the fight. Granted by winning the fight and winning it well McMorrow could not have expected the Steelers bench to get such a jump, but his Giants team mates never responded in the way they have on many occasions this season when he has dropped an opponent and then sat in the box for five minutes.