Saturday 16th September 2000, Nottingham.

Belfast Giants first ever competitive game. Not a favourable result but the start of something special.

Scoring:
1-0 NOT Struch (Drouin, Lavois) 1:32
1-1 BEL Karlander (Stevens, Hoad) 6:46
2-1 NOT Nottingham, Moxam (Garden, Burke) 6:15
3-1 NOT Nottingham, A.Tait (Unassisted) 18:58 (pp)
4-1 NOT Nottingham, Drouin (Struch) 19:51
5-1 NOT Nottingham, Struch (Drouin, Gillis) 1:29

Penalties:
Nottingham: Lavinge 2, Lavoie 2, Lavinge 4.
Belfast: J.Bowen 4, Kelman 12, Schulte 4.

Shots on Goal: Nottingham 9 12 ? – 21, Belfast 10 11 ? – 21.
Powerplay: Nottingham 1-2, Belfast 0-1.
Man of the Match: NOT – Garden, BEL – Ward.
Referee: S Kirkham.

Teams:

Belfast: Wilkinson, Searle, S.Johnson, Wright, Ferone, Karlander, Ward, Riehl, Stewart, Hoad, J.Bowen, Stevens, Schulte, Kelman, Cavallin.

Nottingham: Willis, Paterson, Struch, Weber, Hadden, Lavoie, Drouin, Moxam, Burke, A.Tait, Gillis, Paek, Leach, Garden, Nieckar, Lavinge, McInerney.

Notes:
— Belfast Giants first ever game.
— Kory Karlander scores Belfast Giants first ever goal with assists to Rod Stevens and Jeff Hoad.
— Jason Bowen picks up the Giants’ first ever penalty minutes.

Media Report:

Belfast’s first ever game in Britain and the knowledgeable Nottingham crowd gave them and coach Whistle a warm welcome. Lavoie fed the puck up the left wing, PC Drouin dropped it inside and David Struch fired into the far bottom corner. Belfast’s first ever goal in the Sekonda Superleague came in the seventh ,minute when Kory Karlander fired home from ten feet in front of Willis’ net.

In the second period the league’s newest team got a lesson from the oldest. Dampier had switched his lines around for this one and the chemistry worked second period with piles of pressure on the Giants. Third-liner Moxam worked his way out front to backhand the go-ahead goal, his first for the Panthers, Tait got back to his feet after a blueline clattering on a powerplay to hammer into the net behind the stranded netminder who’d lost his position. And after Schulte had started on Lavigne who finished the set-to, there were 29 seconds left, as the visitors thought about the upcoming break Tait and Struch set up PC Drouin who drilled his first goal for the club in spectacular style with just nine seconds to go on the period.

Panthers’ three lines continued to look more comfortable than in recent times, Struch alongside Tait and Drouin, drilled their 5th from the right circle. The balance of play was very much with the Panthers who, in a nice gesture to mark their opponents’ first game, invited Giants’ chief executive, Bob Zeller, to present the Man of the Match awards – which went to Struch and Ward.

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