BELFAST,U.K- If you were to say to any long term Giants fan, the words “Challenge Cup”, the most likely response would be “Black Sunday”. But after seven years, 14 days and five hours, the Belfast Giants lifted the trophy that eluded them back in 2002. Picture the scene: 2pm on a Sunday afternoon in March, a 7000 capacity sold out Odyssey Arena, BBC cameras to televise the Challenge Cup final live. The teams; the League Champions who ran away with the title finishing 21 points clear at the top of the table, The Giants and the opponents Ayr Eagles; The league runners up, a team who had faced the Giants on eight occasions, losing seven and drawing once. Who would your money be on? The Giants went on to lose 5-0 against the Eagles and ever since, that day has been referred to as “Black Sunday” by Giants fans (as the team wore special Cup jerseys which were black, rather than the usual white or teal worn by the team). Since that season, the Giants have only made one other cup final which was the victorious Playoff Final in 2002-03. 
Fast forward now to St Patrick’s Day 2009, another sold out venue this time it was the Dundonald International Ice Bowl which is significantly smaller than the Odyssey. The Giants went into game two of two a goal down after losing 4-3 to the Manchester Phoenix in Manchester in game one. Paul Deniset opened the scoring on the powerplay at 6:42, giving him his 38th goal of the season and tying up the series. 10 minutes later Player-Coach, Steve Thornton netted his 16th goal of the season and put the Giants ahead. Into the second period and neither teams were giving up much, with Steven Murphy and Stevie Lyle pulling off save after save and keeping the game tight. Just over the half way mark, former Giant, Tony Hand scored on the backhand against Lyle, levelling the score. Both teams had it all to play for going into the third period. As it looked like the game was going into overtime, Mike Burgoyne picked up the puck in the Giants zone, went coast to coast, took on two Phoenix defenders and fired the puck past Murphy to give the Giants the 6-5 lead on aggregate. The Game ended and the Giants lifted their first piece of silverware since 2005-06 when Ed Courtenay led the team to the League Title. The Challenge Cup is no longer “the one that got away”.. Contact the author at Aaron.stewart@prohockeynews.com
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