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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Ten games have passed since I last updated all the statistics and features on the site but I’ve spent the last hour fixing that together and at last caught up with were the Giants are at. Just for interesting reading here is how the Giants have gotten along over the last ten games which have made up the month of February:

10 games played,  7 wins, 3 defeats, 41 goals for, 35 goals against, 4.10 goals per game, 3.50 goals against per game.

During that period there were some milestone moments to go with the seven point games by Martin and Deniset. On 18 February the Giants beat Manchester 2-1 at the Odyssey arena. The victory marked the 300th win in team history. Three days before on the 15 February Stevie Lyle helped the Giants beat Coventry 7-4 and overtook Mike Minard in games played as a Giants goalie with 94.

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2009 got underway in the usual right fashion for the Giants in a 3-1 win over the Manchester Phoenix. Goals came by the way of Ceverie, Awada and Thornton while Lyle, who picked up the man of the match, fell two-minutes shy of a shutout.

The win gave the Giant their 9th straight win in opening games of a new year. In 9 attempts the team have won all nine, eight of which have been played at home, with a total record of 44 goals for and just 13 against.

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Stevie Thornton continues to build the core of his squad for next season with three more early signings. Normally at this time of year we are sitting wondering who will be our new coach never mind talking about five signings already on the board.

The Giants today announced the signings of Graeme Walton, Stevie Lyle and Shane Johnson. They add to the duo already signed of Colin Shields and Dave Phillips. Read More»

You don’t need to have to think back far to remember the Giants season without Stevie Lyle. It was only about 42 games ago and the Giants season was in turmoil and changes needed to be made. Ed Courtenay went out and brought in Stevie Lyle to tighten up the goals and at the same time picked up Pete Campbell to add to the scoring. It turned the Giants fortunes 180 as the team started to win games and climb up the table. Read More»