Belfast Giants completed a successful home double-header against the Guildford Flames, following up Friday’s win with a 3-2 victory on Saturday night at the SSE Arena.

The opening period had plenty of bite, with three players sent to the box for roughing. Much like the previous night, both sides generated opportunities but Justin Fazio and Jackson Whistle were sharp to keep the game at 0-0 after twenty minutes.

Belfast needed less than three minutes of the second period to break the deadlock. Marcus Eriksson picked out Mike Lee in the left circle and he fired past Fazio at 22:45. The Giants added a second shortly after when Ciaran Long’s effort was redirected in front by Ryan Smith at 24:06.

Guildford responded on the power play following a boarding call on David Goodwin. A slick exchange between Cole Ully and Mathieu Gosselin ended with Ully finishing over Whistle at 26:08. The Giants restored their cushion six minutes later when Eriksson fed Scott Conway in the right circle, who blasted a one-timer past Fazio at 32:39.

The Flames again cut the deficit on the man advantage. After Patrick Grasso’s high-sticking penalty, Gosselin broke in alone and lifted the puck into the roof of the net at 36:44 to make it a one-goal game.

Belfast managed the third period as they closed out the win and secured all four points on the weekend.

“I thought it was a pretty good game from the team,” said Belfast’s Marcus Eriksson. “We controlled the game pretty well but played a bit too much offence on the penalty kills, which allowed them to score counter attacks on their powerplays. Otherwise we played two pretty good games here and got away with the four points.”

Photo: William Cherry