Giants fall to home defeat against Storm

The Giants took on the Storm at the SSE Arena on Sunday afternoon. Credit: Presseye

  • Belfast Giants 3 - 6 Manchester Storm

The Belfast Giants were dealt a blow by the Manchester Storm, when they fell to a 6-3 home defeat on Sunday.

The Storm came out strong in the opening period, putting three goals past their Belfast hosts without reply.

The opening goal came from Luke Moffat on a Storm powerplay just under five minutes in.

Brendan Connolly in action for the Giants. Credit: Presseye

Less than five minutes later, Scott Pitt made it 2-0 to the visitors and Matt Stamisz extended that lead to 3-0 seconds later.

That prompted Giants head coach Adam Keefe to call a time-out to speak to his team.

Giants defenceman Spiro Goulakos in action. Credit: Presseye

The second period saw the Giants make strides to get back in the game, with Darcy Murphy supplying a short-handed goal just over two minutes in.

The Storm replied with another powerplay goal from Moffat though, restoring their three-goal cushion, despite the side appearing to have been off-side.

The Giants' Sébastien Sylvestre in action against the Storm's Linden Springer. Credit: Presseye

An unassisted goal from David Rutherford was quickly followed up by his second of the game, from assists by Spiro Goulakos and captain Blair Riley.

That brought the Giants back to within a goal of their opponents.

Rudy celebrates his goal for the Giants. Credit: Presseye

But Ryan Trenz fired in the Storm's fifth goal with just over five minutes to go in that middle period of action to make it 5-3 to the Manchester side.

The third period saw penalty trouble really take its toll on the Giants, particularly when they went down to three men.

Rutherford was called for boarding, while Ryan Martinelli took a slashing call and Sébastien Sylvestre was handed a 10-minute misconduct penalty.

The Giants' John Kurtz in action Paul Swindlehurst of the Storm. Credit: Presseye

And while on the powerplay, the Storm's Moffat rounded off his hat-trick with his side's sixth goal of the game to put them 6-3 in front.

The Giants simply couldn't find a way to get back on track and the Storm skated off with the two points.

Giants captain Blair Riley in action against the Storm. Credit: Presseye

It comes after a 6-4 win for the Giants in Friday's home game against the Fife Flyers.

But Sunday's result will not be good news for the side who had hoped to keep up the pressure on the Elite League leaders, the Cardiff Devils.

They now have the Storm snapping right at their heels as their tough run of fixtures continues.

The Giants are next in action against the Dundee Stars at the SSE Arena on Wednesday night, with face-off at 7pm.