18 Jan 2025, 19:00 | Regular season | SSE Arena Belfast |
Belfast Giants | 4-2 | Sheffield Steelers |
Periods: Shots: | 1-1 (20-6) | 2-1 (8-17) | 1-0 (9-10) | Total: 37-33 |
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Referees: #25 Andy Dalton, #19 Steve Brown  |  Spectators: 7120 |
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Goals and assists
Belfast Giants ended Sheffield's eight-game unbeaten run, and moved
themselves to within a point of the lead in the Elite League, with a 4-2
win over the Steelers in front of 7,120 fans at the SSE Arena.
"It's
huge," said Bo Hanson on the win, "Sheffield are won of the top teams
in the league and to beat them at home too, especially in front of our
crowd, builds our momentum, and hopefully, we can keep climbing moving
forward."
It was a cagey start as both sides knew the magnitude of
the game. A well-worked put Sheffield one up at 10:11 when Brandon
Whistle played the puck into Vallerand, who released to captain Robert
Dowd to fire past Jackson Whistle in the Belfast net.
The Giants
were able to get level on powerplay through Grant Mismash, as Patrick
Watling was called for interference. It was patient build-up from the
Giants. The puck was worked to the right from Mike Lee to Grant Mismash,
who hit a one-timer through Matt Greenfield's five-hole to get the
Giants level at 19:08.
"I thought our first period was pretty
solid, and it's unfortunate that we were down one going into the last
couple of minutes," continued Hanson. "Tying it up improved our morale
in the room and gives us life as well. From there, we started the second
period on time, got a couple goals there, obviously gave up one, but
going into the third with a lead is huge for us."
Period two had a
lot going on. The Giants went ahead through Bobo Carpenter who fired
home Gabe Bast's perfect feed at 27:37 to put his side 2-1 in front.
David
Goodwin, on his return to the Giants, played the puck to Ciaren Long in
the ofensive zone to allow the British forward to deke past his man and
beat Greenfield at 29:24 to make it 3-1.
The Steelers managed to
pull one back through a rocket from Patrick Watling at 33:32, high over
Whistle to make it a one-goal game again.
Tensions boiled over as
Josh Roach and Marc-Olivier Vallerand both fighting majors, with players
from both sides involved in the scrum as the period ended.
The
all-important next goal went the way of the Giants 8:34 into period
three through captain Mark Cooper to put them back two ahead. The Giants
almost hit a fifth when a rebound bounced off the skate of Colton
Saucerman, but an excellent reaction save by Greenfield gloved the puck
as it rolled towards the goal line with some five and a half minutes to
go.
A late cross-checking minor on Brandon Whistle limited what
the Steelers could do inside the final five minutes, and although they
played with six skaters for the final 124 seconds they couldn't get one
back and the Giants took an important win.
Hanson concluded: "To
be at the top you've got to beat better teams, and they're definitely
one of them. A lot of respect to those guys, but it feels good to beat
them for sure."