Giants claim 3rd place in the Elite League playoffs after goalfest

NOTTINGHAM, UK – The opening game on the final day of the Elite League Play Offs saw Belfast Giants go up against the Hull Stingrays in the 3^rd/4^th place match up. Belfast went into the game heavy favourites with the bookmakers however it was Hull who had the better of the opening exchanges and Stingrays led 2-0 after 12 minutes of play thanks to strikes from Tanaka and Osman who both fired past Giants 3^rd choice goalie Andrew Dickson.

Towards the end of the 1^st period Giants became more involved in the game and Belfast grabbed 2 quick goals through Lloyd and Keefe with rookie goalie Dickson even picking up an assist on the Keefe goal. Both sides opted to give ice time to all members of their rosters as both coaches looked to reward their squad players with significant game time in a major event in front of a big crowd at the National Ice Centre.

The 2^nd period of play saw a well worked wraparound effort from Nathan Robinson put Belfast ahead before Galbraith profited from a Dickson stick handling error to tie the scores up for the Stingrays. On the half hour mark Hull opted to replace import netminder Brown with youngster Jeff Lill. Belfast again took the lead on 34 minutes when GB international Colin Shields fired past Lill just 2 minutes after the back up netminder had come into the game.

Hull were only behind for 80 seconds though as Galbraith fired a powerful effort past Dickson to restore parity shortly afterwards. Late on in the 2^nd period Lloyd grabbed his 2^nd goal of the game for Belfast before import  blue liner Brendan Jamison netted his first goal of the season for Hull which saw the scores tied at 5-5 after 40 minutes of play off hockey.

The first goal of the 3^rd period came 9 minutes into the session when Hull took  the lead once again when Galbraith grabbed his 3^rd goal of the game with a nicely taken strike. Belfast did not want end their season with a loss though and Giants stepped up their game to net 3 goals in  a 2 minute spell with the goals coming from Robinson, Keefe and Mark McCutcheon.

Giants claimed an 8-6 victory in an open game of hockey with the Man of the Match Awards going to Tom Stubley of Hull and Darryl Lloyd of the Belfast Giants.