Match Preview Devils Vs Giants 30th December

29th Dec 2011 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

Friday see’s the Devils make the trip to Belfast in what will hopefully be a great preview for the Challenge cup semi-final. The Giants have had the best of the match up so far this year winning all three of the regular league games in Cardiff but they have lost one at home on the Devils first trip to Belfast this year.

First up in their double header against the Clan the Giants made the trip across the too Braehead and despite the”charming” conditions on the ferry pulled off a great road win. The Giants opened the scoring with a goal from Graeme Walton before the mid-way point in the first period with the Clan coming back quickly to equalize with a power play goal from Jade Galbraith . The visitors restored their lead with a strike from Adam Keefe a lead they held onto after twenty minutes of play.

The Giants increased their lead with a power play goal from Jeremy Rebek early in the second and another goal from Craig Peacock opened up a three-goal lead for the visitors. The Clan pulled one back on the power play at 15.20 with a strike from Jimmy Jorgensen. However, just over two minutes later the Giants restored their three goal lead as Darrel Lloyd netted.

A pair of Goals from Lloyd in the third period saw him complete a straight hat trick to give the Giants a 7-2 lead.
The second consecutive hat trick from Darrel Lloyd in three days helped the Giants to an easy win and extend their recent run to four straight wins.

Final score Braehead Clan 2 -7 Belfast Giants

The return match in Belfast saw a reversal of fortunes for the Clan and at the end of the First only a single goal split the teams with Brock McPherson netting for the visitors.

Clan got off to the perfect start to the second period when Ryan Campbell converted a penalty shot in the opening minutes and despite Giants firing 16 shots on Suomalainen, in the Clan Goal he proved unbeatable as he led his side to a 2-0 lead after forty minutes.

Giants threw everything at Clan in the third period but there was simply no way through. The Clan in fact could only muster two shots on goal in the period , but they made them both count as former giant Mike Bayrack fired Clan 4-0 ahead with goals two goals.

Sustained Giants pressure finally paid off when Suomalainen’s shutout was lost at 54.53 and Craig Peacock scored for the home side but it was too little too late.

Final Score Belfast Giants 1- 4 Braehead Clan.

Doug Christiansen, the Belfast Giants' head coach, said the team had to bounce back from the defeat, adding that they didn't "have any choice."

He said: "We didn't show up the first period which gave them [Braehead Clan] a goal lead and then, of course, they got the penalty shot goal to put us down."

"I thought we threw a lot at them in the latter part of the game, but sometimes that happens."

Commenting further Doug Christiansen on the two games against Braehead and looks ahead to the Devils game he had this to say 

“Our game in Braehead was our best game in the neutral zone all season. We were first to pucks, took away passing lanes and made excellent puck decisions. Needless to say, we did not execute last night. We made poor decisions in the neutral zone which led to 3 goals. Braehead have 3 of the most dangerous forwards in the league and they can hurt you on any shift. We need to learn the lessons from yesterday and apply them to Cardiff because Cardiff have an excellent forward group.  We have to move on and focus on what we can control.”

“I have made significant progress the last two days in finding a new player. We are getting closer, however, I do not expect the new player to be in the line-up before the Coventry double header. Clarke returns on January 2nd and we will need him to continue his form from prior to his suspension.”

I will admit that I get a bit confused by the Giants roster as there’s loads of them and they have spares and a guy who live in Belfast who’s kind of spare and another spare but he’s only in to cover the spare who’s injured.. you get the idea and frankly it’s all a bit baffling to a sarcastic outsider.

From what I can piece together the Giants are without  Benoit Doucet who will be out for the rest of the season after an unfortunate tumble with some officials saw him sustain a pretty serious injury , Brock McBride who returned from Injury and then announced he was off to Slovenija to play in the Austrian leagues for Lljubjana. They also look to be without Robert Dowd and James Hutchinson through injury. In addition to this new signing in to replace someone else who may have left or been spare or something Aaron Clarke will still be suspended after some stick swinging antics involving a ref.

The Giants do luckliy have another spare in to cover with the return of Mark Morrison,  who was always a firm a fan favorite in Belfast during his seven-season professional career, has featured in 343 games, chipping in with 24 goals and 34 assists along the way.

 Christiansen said: “Last weekend against Dundee we were really up against it having to play with a short bench. Bringing back Mark Morrison will give us more options. ‘Mo’ is a legend here in Belfast and I have no doubt that he will do whatever it takes to help the team win.

 "Mark hasn’t played professionally since winning the play-off championship in 2010 but he has been training with the guys a few days this week and is excited about getting back on the ice in front of the Odyssey faithful.”

The ones to watch for Belfast are as always Craig Peacock (38 points), former Devil Jon Pelle ( 32 points), Darryl Lloyd who scored 2 Hat tricks in last weekend’s games on 22 points and Adam Keefe (20 points), there may be others but I struggle working out who’s there and  who’s not anymore.

The Devils should make the trip with a full roster as they have announced the Scott Matzka will re-join the side for the trip having missed Sunday’s away trip as his wife was expecting and also that Scott Dobben will be fit to play despite taking a nasty high stick to the face.

We will be running the “Childish and amazingly Biased” Match Night Live service for this game, at the usual location of www.theinferno.co.uk/mnl if you'd like to help out or chip in with some comments on the night please contact us at matchnightlive@gmail.com.

You can also follow on Twitter for updates on @InfernoMNL and @theInfernoCoUk for regular updates and gossip.
And if you’re looking for somewhere to have a pint and a bite to eat before the game or a few beers afterwards we’d suggest the Pilot in Penarth which is a short trip away and will also be open afterwards for post-match drinks, directions to the pub can be found here - http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/where-to-eatdrink/