Belfast Giants got the win they needed in Glasgow, and help with results elsewhere, to set up the possibility of winning the title on home ice next weekend.
A 4-1 victory in Glasgow, after losing to the same team less than 24 hours earlier at the SSE Arena, was the result Adam Keefe’s team were looking for.
“It was a big bounce-back win for us tonight,” started Giants’ Jordan Kawaguchi. “It wasn’t the kind of game we wanted last night, so it was important for us to come back with Nottingham and Sheffield chasing us. It’s a big two points, but even bigger now knowing that Nottingham lost.”
It was a fast-paced but uneventful opening period, with neither team managing to break the tie. Clan would go on to regret not capitalising on a number of odd-man rush chances they created in the opening 20 minutes.
Glasgow struck first in the second period through Brady Risk, finishing from Cade Neilson to give Clan the lead early in the period. Belfast responded through Kawaguchi, who tied the game before adding a second later in the period as he batted the puck out of the air and into the net.
“We just realised that mentally we weren’t there in the home game,” added Kawaguchi. “Some nights as a group you just don’t have it. Maybe we were too focused on what could happen, so we just had to re-engage mentally and that’s what we did here.”
Belfast were certainly in the ascendancy heading into the final period, and goals from David Goodwin and then Ciaran Long helped them to get out of sight.
The Giants now need two points to secure the league title, and face Nottingham Panthers twice at home next weekend before a trip to Manchester.
“I think we’d rather play tomorrow now, as everyone is excited, but we’ll have a good week of preparation here. It’s a big week coming up and we want to get the job done, but ultimately we just want to win hockey games,” concluded Kawaguchi.
Photo: Al Goold
