Belfast Giants made it a perfect weekend in the Utilita Arena in Sheffield with their second win over the Steelers. Results elsewhere helped them go eight points clear at the top.
“It’s massive!” began Giants’ Nicolas Guay. “Massive for us, just coming here and seeing them start off very hard, but we stuck with it and found a way to win both games. It was two very good teams going at it, we’ve had a lot of games this season that could have gone either way.”
Within a minute, the Steelers did what they couldn’t through sixty on Saturday. Mitchell Balmas opened the scoring with a stuff play at the top of the crease. With a minute and a half to play in the first, a giveaway from the Steelers gave Ryan Smith a partial breakaway. Smith would convert with a well-taken snap shot.
“There’s no excuse on a back-to-back, we had four lines and we should have come out harder than we did,” admitted Steelers’ Samuel Tremblay. “These were the biggest games of the season at this point. It’s disappointing.”
The Giants took the lead just under four minutes into the second. On a delayed penalty for a Stephen Harper slash, a neat move from Nicolas Guay saw him dangle around Eamon McAdam and finish neatly into an empty net.
“I’ve been a bit snakebitten lately, so it felt good to score in a big weekend like this against title rivals,” added Guay. “My linemates work so hard to get the puck for me and I was lucky enough to be in the right spot.”
The third period was a very mellow affair as the home side struggled to generate any real opportunities in front of Jake Kupsky, and the energy in the building dropped.
Aaron Fox put his cards on the table and pulled McAdam with 2:06 to play, only to see JJ Piccinich fire into the empty net 33 seconds later. McAdam left again at 58:48, but a poor giveaway set up Smith for another empty-netter with 49 seconds remaining.
“We’re still in it, so we have to go out and win every game at a time,” added Tremblay. “Every game is important towards the end, you never know what’s going to happen, and we also need to make sure we’re building some momentum heading into the playoffs.”
The Giants are now three wins away from securing the league title, though results elsewhere could see that happen sooner.
“It’s incredible and a great opportunity that we’ve put ourselves in. Our mentality every weekend has been to go in and win, so nothing changes,” concluded Guay.
Photo: Hayley Roberts