Match Night Live

Join at MNL from around 6;30 as the Devils take on the Giants in the first leg of the Play Offs 1/4 final at the O in Belfast.

Score predictions welcomed along with printable comments to matchnightlive@gmail.com

Warmup in progress at O

Giants scratches Mark McCutcheon & Kevin Saurette

Russky predicts Devils to avoid defeat by more than 2 goals

Cornwall Taffy in France with be happy with a goal difference of between -1 & +4 but hoping for something approaching + 4

Can I thank all our followers who have expressed their gratitude for this seasons MNL service. Its been a pleasure

On duty tonight we have 3 Giants fans - David M, Dorothy E and Andrea (aka Cupcake)

Hopefully Devils fan Beth will join us shortly

No Jesse Mychan for Devils

RED ARMY squad of 6 fans camped in the O bar

Not many Giants fans present at O tonight, maybe they are all at the Ulster v Blues game

Could be our day - Geraint Thomas won the Harelbeke Belgium Classic this afternoon

Ice is ready for the teams

Beth and the rest of the RED ARMY have left the bar

Officials on the ice

Devils take to the ice

Devils greeted by resounding "booos" by O crowd

They can booooooooooooo as much as they want what we don't want is WWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Team intros

Confirmed that Chubak starts in net for Giants

Darnell & Hicks are refs

Puck dropped

Glove save Ben Bowns

Devils under immense Giants pressure

Big save by Ben Bowns @ 3:20

Trevor Hendrikx & Adam Keefe tussle

Followed by Matthew Myers & Nathan Robinson coming together

No calls from ref

Devils soaking up a lot of pressure

Giants icing @ 5:10

Another Giants icing much to Adam Keefe annoyance

Gametime 5:40

Devils yet to mount a meaningful attack

Puck out of play Face off in the Devils zone

Poor start by Devils says Beth

We haven't heard from David

Ben Bowns covers @ 8:03

great work by Ben Bowns as Giants keep pressing

Devils offside

10 minutes gone

GGiants still on top

Ben Bowns having to be on top form - which he is

Devils icing @ 10:56 gets some respite

Darryl Lloyd & Andrew Hotham collide - NO CALL

Devils penalty @ 12:56 Markku Tahtinen 2 minutes for tripping

KILL DEVILS KILL

Giants offside with 14 secs of PP left

Devils Full strength

Kevin Westgarth gets his 1st shift

Goal giants

@ 16:17 scored by Ray Sawada

Assists Evan Cheverie & Phillips

Kevin Phillips

Scappy goal says Andrea

Giants icing @ 17:20

Devils still not creating much

Gametime 18:23

End of 1st period Giants 1 DEVILS 0

Andrea (Cupcake) period report - Devils been poor - losing every battle, being out muscled - still plenty of hockey to go. Thinks we'll see a different Devils team in next period

I hope so

Come U DEVILS

I am told SoG for 1st period are Giants 14 DEVILS 1

11 hits each team and Giants won 68% of face offs

Ice is ready for 2nd period

Teams back on ice

Beth pleading for the Devils to shoot

2nd period starts

Matthew M is predicting 3 Devils goals this period

Giants penalty called

Mark Garside 2 minutes for hooking @ 20:12

LETS GO DEVILS LETS GO

Giants Full strength

That PP not up to Devils standard

Come on U DEVILS give us a goal - please

Gametime 26:03

Handbags between Matthew Myers & Calvin Elfring

Few gloved punches/pushes in front of Giants net - NO CALL

Giants penalty @ 27:33 Mike Kompon 2 minutes for slashing

Come on U DEVILS get us a PPG now

LETS GO DEVILS LETS GO

Giants Full strength

Devils are creating chances this period

Come U DEVILS round off a good week for me

Big win on the horses earlier in the week plus fantastic deal on flights to Canada last night for this summer

Its end to end now at the O

A good game of hockey

Gametime 32:10

Craig Peacock gets away with a cheeky trip on Joey Haddad

5 mins left in 2nd period

A Devils goal would put the cat amongst the pigeons - LETS GO DEVILS LETS GO

Andrea says these two teams are the only ones in the EIHL who put their bodies on the line blocking shots

Massive save by Chubak

Its the DEVILS now exerting pressure

Gametime 36:33

3 minutes left in a great period of hockey

Gametime 38:04

Gametime 39:25

Andrea wants to know whether Giants can have Andrew Hotham next season

NO NO NO

End of 2nd period Giants 1 DEVILS 0

Andre says - very even period , 3rd will be interesting

SoG for 2nd period Giants 4 DEVILS 15 making it 18-16 after 2 periods

Hits Giants 11 Devils 4

F/O 60/40

Come on U DEVILS one bit effort to make sure we at the very least do not lose the next period

Ice is ready

Teams are back on the ice

3rd period starts

Giants penalty called

Mark Garside leaves ice after hit

Penalty against Garside Robinson sits 2 minutes for hooking

@ 40:23

DEVILS on PP

Why Garside was helped off the ice I do not know

Come on U DEVILS give us a PPG

Giants keep clearing their zone

Giants Full strength

A poor PP by Devils

Devils couldn't establish themselves in Giants zone

Giants offside @ 43:42

huge hit by Westgarth on Trevor Hendrikx

All he's done in the game

Gametime 45:03

Adam Keefe taunting Andrew Hotham who has more sense

Andrew Hotham then turns down Westgarth

Good lad we need him on the ice

LETS GO DEVILS LETS GO

Devils penalty called

KILL DEVILS KILL

awaiting confirmation of that call

No penalty after all

Gametime 48:18

Gone very quiet from O

Andrew Hotham down after accidental hit by Adam Keefe

You believe that you would believe anything

@ 49:18

Andrew Hotham left the ice but soon back on

Andrea thinks we are in for a storming game on Sunday

Gametime 54:01

Both teams have stepped it up in 3rd

No quarter asked or given

5 minutes remain

I seem to have lost my sole Devils fan BETH

My 3 Giants fans enthralled in game

Matthew Myers & Ray Sawada for 2 minutes each @ 56:09

high sticks for Myers: cross-checking

Sawada 2 minutes for cross-checking

Final 2 minutes

Both teams Full strength

Lots of Devils pressure

Time Out Giants

@ 58:43

Game restarts

Gametime 59:26

Chris Culligan goes off limping badly

Final score Giants 1 DEVILS 0

All to play for on Sunday

Andrea not sure 1 goal is enough for Giants but as she says we shall see

Our thanks to the trio of Giants fans - Dorothy, David and Andrea-Cupcake

Devils MoM - Joey Martin

Andrea would hasve chosen Ben Bowns

Giants MoM - Kevin Westgarth much to texters amazement

Our thanks also to Beth, who we might have lost to the bar mid game

Well done to the small contingent of the RED ARMY who made the trip to Belfast

Join me on Sunday night for the 2nd leg of this very close Play Offs 1/4 Final

MNL will as always bring you full un-interupted coverage

If you want to go to BBT get your tickets quick - less than 120 seats left plus standing

Looks like another sell out to finish the season

GOOD NIGHT EVERYONE - NOS DA PAWB