HIGHLIGHTS: Giants 6 - 2 Panthers
The Stena Line Belfast Giants defeated the Nottingham Panthers 6-2 on Friday at The SSE Arena, Belfast and closed the gap on fourth placed Brahead Clan to two points.
The Stena Line Belfast Giants defeated the Nottingham Panthers 6-2 on Friday at The SSE Arena, Belfast and closed the gap on fourth placed Brahead Clan to two points. Goals from Shields (2), Radja, Ganzak, Forney and Beech gave the Giants a deserved home win in front of a sell-out crowd in Belfast.
The Giants began the game without key players Matt Nickerson, David Rutherford and Johan Ejdepalm and the home side got off to a bad start as Andy Bohmbach scored his 20th of the season for the Panthers after only 5:18, assisted by Robert Farmer and new signing Kevin Quick.
The hosts regrouped during the first intermission and came flying out the blocks in the second period with Colin Shields equalising with a fine effort 57 seconds in. Mike Radja made it 25 goals for the season at 28:54 as he finished off a nice move with Craig Peacock.
Peacock was the provider once again, this time it was Mitch Ganzak who scored with a powerplay goal at 32:25.
Once again, the Giants got the period off to a good start, as Michael Forney scored a fourth for the hosts 92 seconds into the third period. A moment of controversy at 51:04 as Referee Dean Smith awarded a goal to the visitors, when the puck appeared to hit the crossbar and rebound away from the net. Following moments of discussion with a linesman, the goal was given by the Referee and created to David Clarke.
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)0; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));