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.

I got the recent edition of the Elite Stats Weekly e-mail into my inbox this evening which is packed full of information on teams and players across the Elite League. I had a skim through and even used some of the numbers to help me get the site back up-to-date but also seen some interesting statistics that I had a closer look at.

Colin Shields is leading the Elite League in points scoring with 81 in total, five ahead of Jade Galbraith (the leagues primary set-up man with 57 assists in 49 games) of Nottingham and nine up on Greg Chambers of Coventry. Shields is on a torrid pace and if he keeps up the current rate of scoring he should finish the regular season having played 64 games and scoring 45 goals and 101 points, smashing any previous Giants records for goals and points in a season. He is second in goal scoring with 36 to Coventry’s Luke Fulghum who sits on 40 goals.

Jeff Szwez is another Giants player leading a category with six short handed goals, one ahead of Jeff Legue of Sheffield. David Clarke of Nottingham leads the league in powerplay goals with 14. Evan Cheverie is Mr. Clutch for the Giants with five game winning goals - Adam Calder leads with eight.

Then there is the physical side of the game with penalty minutes and Sean McMorrow of the Giants leads that category also with a massive 344 in total, 40 ahead of Brad Voth of Cardiff who sits on 314. Third place is ex-Giant Jeff Hutchins all the way down on 197. At this current pace Sean McMorrow looks set to hit 458 penalty minutes for the year which is a staggering number considering the all-time record by a Giants player in a season is currently Paxton Schulte with 424 from 2003/04.

Between the pipes the Giants come out top again through Stephen Murphy who leads the league in save percentage with a total of .922 ahead of Peter Hirsch of Coventry on .919 and Michel Robinson of Newcastle on .914. Murphy also leads in goals against average with 2.30 ahead of Kevin St. Pierre of Nottingham on 2.80 and ex-Giants tender, Stevie Lyle now of Cardiff on 2.82.

So what about team stats?

Ask any Giants fan and they’ll tell you the penalty killing is pretty good but the powerplay is awful and the stats don’t lie. The Giants have the third worst powerplay in the Elite League with a 17% hit rate compared to the leagues best of 23.4% from Sheffield. It’s surprising that considering the Giants are actually second in the standings with Sheffield second last. Shorthanded the Giants are much stronger coming in second best in the league on 83.9% behind Sheffield who sit on 84.4%. Very very strange Sheffield leading both powerplay and shorthanded categories yet struggling so much in the standings overall.

In goals per game the Giants are always high on the charts. Ever since the teams inception in 2000/01 the team have always been known as an offence first team and one that has been high up, if not leading, the goals per game ratio. This year is no different with the team currently second in goals per game with 3.9, just 0.2 behind Coventry who lead on 4.1 goals per game. At home the Giants are averaging an impressive 4.5 goals per game - not bad from a Giants team who some fans believe are lacking up front.. For what it is worth the Stingrays bring up the rear with a poor 2.5 goals per game. The Giants also lead the shots on goal totals with an average of 37.6 per game and sit second last in penalty minutes per game with 22.7 dispelling theories that the referees in the league are anti-Giants or that the team are ill-disciplined.

I’ve spent the last little while updating the fight section on the site, giving it a full revamp. I’ve tracked down lost fights, old video’s as well as updating all-time statistics as individual season statistics. Fights are broken down to individual seasons with details of each fight as well as fighting majors for the season per player and against individual teams. In the coming weeks and months I hope to add in profiles of individual players and their fight stats - enough to keep the Giants fight fan busy for a while!

Of course, there’s only videos of fights I could fine but if you see any fights without a video link, let me know and I’ll be sure to link it up.

For interests sake, Did you know:

- Sean McMorrow has now had more fights in a single season (20) than any other Giants season.

- The Giants have had more fights this season (35) than in any other season before.

- Paxton Schulte has had more fights than any Giants player in team history with 31. Shawn Skiehar is second on 21 with Jason Bowen and Sean McMorrow on 20.

- There have been 132 fights at home games and 125 on the road with four occasions when there have been four fights in a single game and one occasions when a player has had three fights in a single game (Shawn Skiehar).

- In December 2000 the Giants got into 14 fights in one month.

The homepage of the Giants fighting information can be found here with links to individual seasons.

I’m a bit old with this one but I just flicked through the Giants website and noticed a photo of the team wearing Yellow shirts from their game against Nottingham a few weeks back. Given that I am now out of the country and unable to attend games in person unfortunately I didn’t even realize they were playing in Yellow and Blue until tonight’s discovery. Now if Bangor Football Club played Hockey, this is perhaps what the kit would look like! I actually quite like it … but not as something permanent … which is wasn’t. This was one was for charity auction. Lately the Giants have had quite a lot of ‘gimmick’ jersey’s in all sorts of colours and designs. I suppose whatever brings in the money is a good idea but I just can’t keep up.

Warning: Incase you listen to this and somehow managed to get all excited for the game they are talking about, I’m a bit late on this one and the game has actually taken place, but it is worth pointing out anyway since it involves a Giants player - and not just any Giants played but the most talked about Giants player of all-time on message forums - Sean McMorrow.

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.

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.

Perhaps looking for a fellow and regular dance partner, Giants enforcer Sean McMorrow has welcomed tough nut Mike Sgroi to the Sheffield Steelers calling him “an excellent addition to the Steelers team and a great signing for the Elite League.” Sgroi comes with a reputation of being a guy who can fight and play a bit and should add to the entertainment factor in games between the Giants and Steelers. With the Steelers struggling so far this season, especially domestically, their coach Dave Matsos has looked to shake up the line-up. Brad Cruickshank has moved to Coventry and Sgroi comes in to replace him. The Steelers organization has obviously seen what a McMorrow can do for entertainment with the fans both home and on the road and have looked to bring in someone of a similar ilk. McMorrow himself was full of praise while taking a not-so-subtle dig at his big rival Brad Voth.

“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.”

It wasn’t a weekend to remember for the Belfast Giants as they came up short in one of their worst performances in team history that had the fans booing them off the ice. Although they fired a deceiving, and surely record setting, 72-shots on the Newcastle Vipers goal the effort against a 9 man Newcastle team wasn’t there and they blew a four goal lead to lose 6-5 after a shootout.

Taking an early 4-0 lead had the fans settling into their seats for a Sunday evening snooze as their team had it easy against a Newcastle with such a short bench that they deserved credit for even bothering to show up. Just nine men had taken the ice for the injury hit team and with the score at four they’d have been forgiven for rolling over and taking the thumping that appeared to be coming their way.

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The Giants were in Dundonald tonight trying to overturn a 5-2 defect to the Cardiff Devils from the first leg of their Challenge Cup Semi-Final and looking to return to the final of the competition for the second year in a row and defend the trophy they won last year. Knowing they had given the Devils a three goal lead from the first leg they had to go attacking from the start, not that such a tactic is unusual to the Giants who are known as an offense first club, but tonight the result had to be good. Enforcer Sean McMorrow was scratched from the line-up in return for speed and scoring power through the roster but if post game reports from fans are to be believe, player-coach Steve Thornton only rolled two forward lines anyway and the team didn’t have the legs to claw back the tie and win it.

Dropping behind inside the first three minutes would never help but three goals in the following thirty minutes of play put the score at 6-5 overall and giving the fans that had showed up to the old barn a bit of hope. Hopes were dashed though either side of the second intermission when a power play goal followed by a short handed goal just seconds into the third frame for the Devils put the tie beyond reach.

The Giants didn’t give up however, two Colin Shield’s goals in the final five minutes again pulled the tie within one with the Giants leading 5-3 on the night, but it wasn’t to be and time ran out on their hopes of retaining the trophy.

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?