Giants go down to Panthers despite brave fightback
Now three defeats in a row for Belfast side
The Belfast Giants’ recent poor run continued last night after they lost 5-4 at home to the Nottingham Panthers.
It was the Giants’ third defeat on the bounce.
But it could have been so different – after they fought back from 4-2 down to tie the match.
The Giants got off to a positive start, putting plenty of rubber on Michael Garnett in the Nottingham net. However it was the visitors who opened the scoring with Alexander Mokshantsev scoring shorthanded on a breakaway at 7:24.
Colin Shields, the Giants all-time leading scorer, added to his tally at 16:53 with a fine equalising goal. Shields deflected Mason’s shot into the Panthers net to square the game at one.
Just 71 seconds later and the Giants were in front. Brendan Connolly fed the puck to Darcy Murphy who skated into the Panthers zone and fired the puck past Garnett to put the Giants into the lead at the end of the first period.
Referee Darnell sent both Brendan Connolly and Ryan Martinelli to the penalty box for tripping and the Panthers scored on both penalties. First Mathieu Brisebois netted at 35:21, assisted by Clarke and Derlago. Derlago then turned from provider to scorer at 36:00 with Nottingham’s second powerplay goal of the game, assisted by Frame and Perlini.
The Panthers netted their third of the period with another powerplay goal at 38:02 as Evan Mosey scored unassisted to give the away side a 4-2 lead after two periods.
Adam Keefe sent his team into the final period flying out of the blocks and after 60 seconds, the Giants back to within one goal. Spiro Goulakos got the puck to Sebastien Sylvestre from behind the net and the Giants #10 cooly slotted the puck into the Panthers goal.
At 48:29 Captain Blair Riley equalised for the Giants when he diverted Ryan Martinelli’s shot on net past Garnett