Belfast Giants produced a remarkable third-period surge, erasing a three-goal deficit with six unanswered goals to beat Manchester Storm 6-3 in front of 6,019 fans at the SSE Arena.
Manchester struck first after a cautious start, when interim captain Kyle Locke set up Gary Haden to finish past Jackson Whistle at 6:15. The Storm doubled their lead on the powerplay late in the period – Loren Ulett’s one-timer was stopped, but Joe Nardi reacted quickest to tuck in the rebound at 16:03.
Belfast had chances early in the second period but couldn’t convert, and instead Manchester made it 3-0. Nick Welsh pulled the puck back for Dennis Busby, who beat Whistle with an excellent finish at 24:31. The goal prompted a Giants timeout, followed moments later by Alexis Gravel entering the net. Despite a strong push, Belfast headed into the second intermission still three goals down.
Jake Gaudet later admitted that the room knew exactly what was needed: “The guys in there knew things weren’t going our way and we came out in the third and changed the momentum.” Just 61 seconds into the period, the Giants got the spark they needed on a powerplay. “We saw the powerplay as an opportunity to start to turn the tide back in our way,” Gaudet explained – and Jordan Kawaguchi delivered, firing home to get Belfast on the board 61 seconds into the period.
Less than five minutes later the comeback was very much on. Scott Conway scored at 45:02, and only 59 seconds after that Nicholas Guay tied the game to bring the SSE Arena to life. “There wasn’t a lot of good stuff in the first two periods,” Gaudet said, “but we created chances without scoring goals.”
With the momentum now entirely in their favour, the Giants pushed on. JJ Piccinich cut inside and finished David Goodwin’s pass to put Belfast ahead with 8:32 remaining. Gaudet then made it 5-3 just 90 seconds later, capping a huge swing in the game. Patrick Grasso sealed the win with an empty-netter in the final minutes.
Gaudet praised the crowd for their role in the comeback: “I think there was a lot of energy in the building tonight and from the fans after finally getting them in there in the third period.”
Photo: William Cherry