Giants move into third

Photo: Al Goold

Belfast Giants moved into third place in the Elite League standings with a three-goal road win over Glasgow Clan in front of 3,577 fans at Braehead Arena.

It was a quick start from the visitors who found themselves three ahead with less than eight minutes played. Antti Karjalainen made a good save to deny Greg Printz in the opening minutes but the Giants kept the puck alive and were put ahead by Mark Cooper coming in at the far post to open the scoring with 79 seconds played. Some two minutes later, the Giants again did well to keep the play alive and had Quinn Preston to thank for their second of the night off an excellent Daniel Tedesco pass. Printz made it 3-0 at 7:32, after which Jason Morgan called his timeout to settle his team. IT seemed to work, with Gary Haden pulling one back on the powerplay just two minutes later, but the visitors ended the period up by two. 

Stevenson and Cameron Pound dropped the gloves in the second period before Robert Lachowicz, Clan's joint-leading scorer, cut the deficit down to just one at 30:34. 

Clan had two powerplay opportunities to try and tie the game before Belfast settled it. Tedesco's good finish 1-on-0 against Karjalainen put them 4-2 ahead with only 5:24 to play, before Bobby MacIntyre added some gloss to the final scoreline with a fifth four minutes from the final buzzer.