Weekend review

Giants have amazing four point weekend...

It was possibly the best weekend of the season for Belfast giants so far after an amazing four point weekend with a 4-2 win over Sheffield steelers on Saturday night in front of a packed Giants crowd on home ice to kick it off. Giants returnee Craig Peackock scored after just 54 seconds into his re-debut to send the crowd wild! That was how it stayed until the second period when Jeff Szwez scored an easy goal to keep the confidence alive! Into the third, and Sheffield broke Stephen Murphys shut-out with a goal from Jeff Legue but Belfast edged their lead again as captain Adam Keefe scored for 3-1. Steelers were desperate to comeback and Rob Dowd scored a smack of a shot to bring it close again 3-2. It was an unbelievably tense final few minutes and with a minute to go, steelers had pulled Doyle out of goal for the extra man. Steelers pushed with everything they had but giants kept pushing and scored into the empty net through Dustin Whitecotton. The home crowd were going nuts and counted down the seconds to a memorable win: highlights here: 

http://vimeo.com/76781769

It was followed by a comeback in Coventry as blaze went 2-0 up early on but giants pulled one back for a close first period but Coventry kept it up with a 3-1 lead goal but giants scored twice for a tie at 3-3 at break two.Final period and Blaze yet again regained the lead to keep in front but an explosion of giants goals completed a fantastic comeback. The final score: 7-4 to giants. highlights here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RHOo6UmcNSI

Fantastic weekend for clan...

Braehead clan, like Belfast, had a fantastic four point weekend starting with a brilliant home win on Saturday against top boys Dundee stars. They hammered them 5-1! It was a scoreless first period. Clan however dominated the second taking a 2-0 lead by break two, and in the third clan added and added to their lead, and despite Dundee breaking the shut-out late on, Braehead would keep the pressure on and lead them to their best win so far. Highlights here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT2ssV7b0fo 

It was followed by a tight game on Sunday in Edinburgh. They would come out 3-2 winners with two strikes from Joel Champagne and one from Kevin Bergin and two goals from caps in between would not be enough to win. Caps goalscorers were Michal Dobron and Les Reaney. This would sum up one heck of a weekend for Clan. 

Panthers with a four point challenge cup weekend...

It all good stories of four point weekends at the moment is't it? Well heres another team with a brilliant weekend to continue their grand slam defense but this weekend focused on their challenge cup defense. Games at home vs Coventry and away at Hull were both successful wins. It kicked off with a bang at the NIC in Nottingham beating Coventry blaze 5-3. It only took 44 seconds for panther to get on the board via Matt Francis to get the home crowd pumping. A second was added later on and would hold the two goal lead until the first break. But blaze came roaring back in the second with two goals to make a tight third period ahead. Panthers added pressure and scored three unanswered goals to seal it, including a bad giveaway from blaze goalie Mike Zacharias to give Lynn Loyns an easy goal. Mike had a great game making some brilliant stops but panthers got past him when needed. A fifth was added via Matt Ryan on a breakaway to guarantee a win for the big crowd of fans in Nottingham and players too. Blaze were awarded a penalty shot with a few minutes to go and scored but it wasn't enough and panthers won 5-3. highlights here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKedjhl-cr8

The next day back up goalie for panthers Dan Green, had his first start in net against Hull Stingrays in another cup fixture and a twist and turn game that could've gone anyway but Panthers had another two goal win but in tighter fashion to beat Stingrays 6-4 in Hull. highlights here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dMXT1qK03g

Up and down weekend for Devils...

Its not been bad or good for Cardiff this weekend. They had a fantastic 8-5 win on Saturday at home against Edinburgh Capitals but got hammered 6-3 in Sheffield the next day. The 8-5 victory, was a 1-1 first period with early goals from both sides but the second would be a 5 goal thriller with caps taking a 4-3 lead going into the final period, but devils would score a whopping 5 goals in the final 20 minutes with two goals for Edinburgh scored in between but a last minute empty netter for Devils would seal off a brilliant victory. 

The next night however, saw them loose 6-3 in Sheffield to the steelers despite Phil Hill scoring his last goal as a devil just 24 seconds into the game. He would be released the following day. Steelers would take a 2-1 lead into period two though but dominate the second. They scored four goals to take their tally to 6-2 with a devils goal scored too earlier on. Devils scored the only goal early on in period three but it was too little, too late for devils and they lost 6-3 for a very mixed weekend.

Flyers drop only scoring two goals all weekend...

It was a bad weekend for Fife Flyers who lost both of their games this weekend. As you read earlier on in this report, Dundee stars lost 5-1 to Braehead clan in Braehead but Dundee bounced back from that the following day with A 2-1 win against flyers with Nikita Kashrisky scoring both goals for stars. The following night, flyers were on home ice vs Hull stingrays and stingrays thrashed them 4-1. This keeps Fife bottom of the table. Rok Pajic scored both goals for flyers all weekend. 

EIHL TABLE AFTER WEEKEND...

Pos	ELITE	GP	W	L	OTL	SOL	PTS
1	Belfast	9	7	2	0	0	14
2	Dundee	11	7	4	0	0	14
3	Nottingham	6	5	1	0	0	10
4	Coventry	6	4	2	0	0	8
5	Braehead	7	4	3	0	0	8
6	Sheffield	6	3	2	0	1	7
7	Cardiff	8	3	5	0	0	6
8	Hull	7	2	5	0	0	4
9	Edinburgh	7	1	6	0	0	2
10	Fife	5	0	3	0	2	2

WOW! For the first time, this season top boys Dundee are no longer top! Belfast giants take to the thrown now! This is different! 

Posted by Rhys Williams