Today’s game against the Nottingham Panthers was no ordinary league game. Well it was, but there was an extra to it for the Belfast Giants — today’s game was the 500th in the history of the club — and although a 1000th game will really be cause for celebration, I didn’t want to wait until some time in 2017 to write about it. Forget about the pathetic score, this is a moment many people never thought they would see. MORE»

Now that was one to get the fans off their seats. The Giants have been well known over the years for their third period come backs and last night they did it again. Putting the fans into a panic before lifting them up with a come from behind victory. The win was against title rivals Nottingham which also helped their cause it moved the team up a place above the Panthers into 3rd. MORE»

Unfortunately for the Giants both teams above them in the standings had wins tonight as Coventry beat Cardiff 4-2 and Sheffield overcame the Edinburgh Capitals 5-4 after a shootout. Both gain two points on the Giants who now have also fell to forth place after a Panthers victory. The Giants are still well in the mix. With a game in hand on the two above them and two in hand on the Steelers the Giants have every reason to remain positive so long as they snap their three game losing streak.

After losing for the second time in a row for the first time this season the Giants went on the road to Sheffield looking to get back on the winning trail against one of their major rivals for the title this season. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be and the team fell to its worst defeat of the season being shut out 5-0 to the Steelers. Yes, you can now call it a slump. MORE»

The Giants lost their second game in a row for the first time this season but failed to slip further down the table thanks to the fact they had games in hand and were involved in the only game of the night yesterday evening. Manchester were in town and took the spoils keeping them in fifth place in the standings and still very much close enough to be a threat. MORE»

Just when it looked like we might actually walk away with four point this weekend, much to everybody’s suprise considering the injuries this team has, hockey showed us why nothing should be taken for-granted and certainly no team taken as a guaranteed two points. After being embarrassed by Hull on home ice just a few weeks ago the Giants fell yet again to the bottom of the league team on the back of the win of the season over league challengers Coventry Blaze just a few nights before. MORE»

The Giants were playing without three of their top players in Robins, Martin and Denesit but even with the short bench they were able to overcome one of the league favourites this season Coventry by beating up on them 3-1 in the Odyssey. The win keeps the Giants in third place but only a point back on leaders Sheffield with games in hand. Not many people gave the Giants a chance tonight, even myself. When I heard about the injuries I said a point would be a good outcome, but the players believed and that was what mattered in the end.

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Tonight’s game has last years champions, Coventry Blaze coming into town for a top of the table clash. There will be a lot on the line as each team look to get one over the other in the championship race. It won’t decide the league title but it will be a huge momentum booster for whoever comes out on top. MORE»

Another game another two points for the Giants. After winning two on the road last weekend and now two at home this weekend the Giants have certainly put their bad showing against Hull two weeks ago behind them. Tired legs might have been expected tonight as the Giants went into the clash without key players, Mark Morrison, Bobby Robins and Paul Deniset, but for the Giants it didn’t prove to be a problem against one of the league strugglers, Edinburgh Capitals who fell to the Giants 5-2. MORE»

Andrew Martin’s 10 minute misconduct penalty at 18:42 of the first period moved the Giants over the 10,000 penalty minutes mark in team history. It has taken 8 full seasons and almost 3 months of the 9th season to set the marker.

There hasn’t been a shootout in the Odyssey for a while but the controversial skills competition was used tonight to settle the game between the Giants and the Steelers for who would take home the two points. Thankfully for the hometown fans the victor was the Giants. They had to work hard for their spoils however as they twice came from behind to force overtime and then the shootout. In the shootout the Giants scored twice (Martin and Cheverie), the Steelers scored once (Talbot) and missed twice to hand the win to Belfast. MORE»

Giants fans have gone a while without a good home game of hockey. Especially if you consider the last game of hockey they seen couldn’t be classified as ‘good’ when they went down 6-3 to Hull. tonight Sheffield are in town followed by Edinburgh tomorrow night and coming off the back of two wins last week against Nottingham and Manchester, both good teams this year, confidence must be high. MORE»

The Giants completed a successful weekend on the road with another win, this time against Manchester Phoenix as the Giants came from behind late in the game to take the two points. Paul Deniset was the hero of the night scoring a hat trick that included the game tying goal with less than ten minutes left and then the game winning goal with 23 seconds remaining. The game looked to be heading to overtime when he scored his winner crushing the Phoenix side and giving the Giants all the points. MORE»

I didn’t see it, I didn’t even hear it, but that is what I would call a hockey game. The goal tending might well have been shocking but the forwards were on their game for both sides as the teams scored goals for fun right up until the dying minutes when the Giants from Bobby Robins grabbed the eventual winner. The game had it all, power play goals, two short handed goals for the Panthers, four goals in three minutes, three goals in two minutes and a huge come-back effort from Nottingham. But the Giants who really needed the win, got the win and get right back into the title race. MORE»

I haven’t wrote to much lately but then again the Giants haven’t played much lately. Following their terrible defeat to Hull the Giants had two games last weekend re-scheduled due to international games and so have had to wait until this weekend to try and put things to rights. Tonight they are in Nottingham for the first time this season as they look to get back to winning ways. Whether the two week break will be a good or bad thing for the team remains to be seen but we’ve only a few hours to wait to find out.

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