Devils Vs Giants - October 5th

3rd Oct 2013 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

Saturday night see’s the Belfast Giants and the two man wrecking crew of Daryl Lloyd and Adam Keefe return to Cardiff Bay. The Devils need a win from this game to get some momentum going but if our recent form against the Giants is anything to go by this could be a tall order. 

The Giants have had the best of the last few seasons against the Devils winning the last seasons series  7 – 1 and the previous seasons series 5 – 3.

We’ve seen the Giants once already in the bay this season with the Devils going down 2-7 to the visiting side (http://www.cardiffdevils.com/news/fixtures/cardiff-devils-vs-belfast-giants/ ). 

For a good introduction of the Giants squad I’d suggest checking out the rather excellent Chasing the Dragons blog here http://chasingthedragons.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/ten-teams-ten-days-day-7-belfast-giants/

The Giants were in action twice last weekend and saw mixed fortunes starting on Saturday in Nottingham with a game that could have gone either way it was the home side that came out on top by the odd goal in five.

It was honours shared between the Panthers and Giants after the opening session. The home team took the lead with a strike from Brandon Benedict at 8.05. However, this lead was short-lived as the visitors were back on level terms as Chris Higgins netted at 9.58.

With the second period looking to end goalless the Panthers went on the power play and with 42 seconds remaining Chris Caprao gave the home side the lead once again.

The game was level for a second time at 56.15 as Mark Garside netted for the visitors. Before you could blink the home fans were on their feet as 16 seconds later Matt Francis found the net with what turned out to be the game winner.

For highlights of this match - http://www.belfastgiants.com/archives/watch-highlights-from-saturday-in-nottingham/

Final Score Nottingham Panthers 3 – 2 Belfast Giants

Before making the trip down to Hull on Sunday to take on the Stingrays who ran them to the wire in a game where special team play came to the fore. Belfast looked to have the game wrapped up going into the third period. However, two goals from the hosts put a different slant on the game. That was until Calvin Elfring netted the game winner with less than five minutes remaining.

Despite Hull having more rubber on target in the first period it was Belfast that scored the only goal from Kevin Saurette at 15.09 on the power play.

The second period was a carbon copy of the first as the Stingrays once again outshot their opponents. A second power play goal from the Giants at 25.52 from Dustin Whitecotton gave the visitors a two goal lead.

The home side finally found their way to goal as Jereme Tendler pulled one back on the power play at 42.38. The game was level at 53.16 as Derek Campbell scored a shorthanded goal. However, having got right back into the game the home side got penalised and Elfring was on hand to net on the power play to give his team the points.

For highlights of this match -http://www.belfastgiants.com/archives/highlights-from-sundays-win-in-hull/

Final Score Hull Stingrays 2 – 3 Belfast Giants

The Giants have a team stacked with offensive threat but for me the ones to watch are Kevin Saurette their leading scorer currently on 11 points currently and the afore mentioned pair of Darryl Lloyd and Adam Keefe who always seem to boss games against the Devils.

In goals the Giants are backed up by British Net minder Stephen Murphy who’s “Vegan Powers “ ( Just for Chris Stone) make him a tough nut to crack in nets.

The Devils will be missing Andrew Conboy but otherwise should be a full strength and looking for no less than two points after the frankly shambolic announcement and retraction (http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/ice-hockey/gerad-adams-given-ultimatum-over-6120867) in the press this week by the club with regards the future of coach Adams unless the team starts to win more regularly.

We are hoping to have a few words from Adam Keefe before the game and will update the front page as and when we hear back from him.

We will be running the “ridiculously childish and disgustingly biased” Match Night Live service for this game, expect name calling, slurs and one eyed bias in epic proportions, at the usual location of http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/mnl

On Saturday we’ll be updating you live from the Inferno “News desk” at the rink thanks to the great guys at Analysis Technologies. If you’d like to chip in with a comment or make a score prediction you can contact us at matchnightlive@gmail.com.