Belfast Giants moved to the top of the Elite League with another dominant performance over Sheffield Steelers at the SSE Arena, claiming a 7-1 victory in the second game of the weekend double-header.
“Lots of fun!” said Giants forward Reid Irwin of the two games over the weekend. “I think Sheffield came out hard in both first periods and I don’t think the score reflected the run of play early on, but we got the bounces and the saves. From there, I thought we managed the games well.
“Most importantly, Jackson Whistle played really well both nights. He’s a lot of fun to play in front of with his calmness. He was great, and timely scoring was the reason we got those results.”
The Giants were rewarded for their strong start with the opening goal at 7:30. JJ Piccinich drove into the left circle and picked out Scott Conway on the right, who rifled a one-timer into the roof of the net.
Belfast doubled their lead six minutes later as Jordan Kawaguchi collected the puck just outside the crease from Jake Gaudet, rounded Matthew Greenfield and finished neatly.
An excellent opening period was capped by a third goal on the powerplay. After Reece Kelly was penalised for delay of game, Mike Lee fired a shot from just inside the offensive zone through traffic to beat Greenfield at 17:47.
The Giants added a fourth early in the second period following sustained Steelers pressure. Marcus Eriksson broke in on goal and squared the puck to Ryan Smith, who finished at 23:33.
Eriksson again provided the assist as Smith netted his second of the night and Belfast’s fifth at 34:14, cutting the puck back from the left circle for another clinical finish.
Sheffield pulled one back before the second intermission when Mitchell Balmas found Evan Jasper in the slot to beat Whistle at 35:34.
Belfast hit the iron early in the third but continued to press. Kawaguchi added his second of the night to make it six at 52:35, before Carsen Twarynski completed the scoring with 79 seconds remaining.
“We can’t get too far ahead of ourselves,” added Irwin. “But it was huge for us to score and for Jackson to have those performances. It’s confidence-building, but it’s a long season. We’ve got three and a half months to go, so it’s about one foot in front of the other, not getting too high or too low. But it was a lot of fun this weekend.”
Photo: William Cherry