Giants fall in second clash with Devils

A big crowd watched the Giants and Devils do battle for the second night running. Credit: Presseye

  • Belfast Giants 2 - 3 Cardiff Devils

The Belfast Giants fell to a 3-2 defeat at the hands of the Cardiff Devils, despite coming back from two goals down.

The Giants were looking to get back on track after the gut-wrenching turnaround the previous night that saw them go 3-0 up over their Welsh visitors, only to suffer a third period collapse and lose 4-3.

In the opening period on Saturday night, the Devils put early pressure on their hosts and, with just under five minutes gone, Guillaume Doucet put the puck home to make it 1-0 to the Devils.

Colin Shields in action for the Giants against the Devils. Credit: Presseye

The Giants struggled as a result of penalties, twice ending up playing with only three skaters against Cardiff’s five.

There was controversy over some decisions by referee Stefan Hogarth throughout the game though.

That included failing to call against the Devils over an incident that involved Chris Higgins, only to send Higgins to the box for holding.

A later incident saw Hogarth hand Chris Jones of the Devils a 2+10 penalty for hitting Giants defenceman Jeff Mason from behind - but also confusingly penalise Mason for "diving".

Giants forward Chris Higgins seemed to come off worse against the Devils, but still ended up in the penalty box. Credit: Presseye

Before that though, at the start of the second period, it took Cardiff less than two minutes to double their lead with Patrick Asselin the scorer.

Then it was the Giants turn to go five-on-three, after the Devils’ Matthew Myers flattened netminder Stephen Murphy and sat for interference and Joey Martin joined him after taking a penalty for slashing.

The Devils managed to get back to full strength without their opponents capitalising though.

Giants player-coach Derrick Walser in action against the Devils. Credit: Presseye

With just over eight minutes to go before the second break, tempers flared.

New Giants signing Jérôme Leduc was caught up in an incident which saw him sit for two minutes for interference – but it resulted in Ryan Martinelli and Andrew Lord exchanging punches.

Both players sat five-for-fighting penalties.

Four minutes later, the Devils took another penalty when Myers sat for delay of game – and the Giants took the opportunity to get on the scoreboard.

Blair Riley got the goal, from assists by Chris Higgins and Leduc to cut the Devils’ lead to 2-1.

Just over a minute later, there was a golden opportunity for the Giants when they were awarded a penalty shot.

David Rutherford stepped up to go one-on-one with Devils netminder Ben Bowns – and coolly put the puck past him for the tie-up goal.

The sides headed into the third period locked at 2-2, but the Devils wasted no time in going ahead once again, with Andrew Hotham getting their third goal.

Try as they might, the Giants could not find that elusive late equaliser.

Cardiff took the win, but the game ended in disarray with both benches joining the fray that broke out after the buzzer.

A number of both players on both sides ended up being penalised - namely Andrew Hotham, Ben Bowns, Patrick Bordeleau, Matthew Myers, Scott Hotham, Chris Jones, Guillaume Doucet, and Josh Batch of the Devils and Blair Riley, Jim Vandermeer, Matt Nickerson, Michael Forney, Andrew Dickson, Colin Shields and Michael Quesnele of the Giants.

Losing out on the four points over Friday and Saturday marks a major blow to the Giants' league challenge, but they now look to get back on track to at least try to hold onto a good position going into the playoffs.

The Belfast Giants are next in action on Saturday against the Fife Flyers, with face-off at the SSE Arena at 7pm.