Giants come from three down to beat Clan

Photo: Al Goold

Belfast Giants came back from three down to eventually run out 8-5 winners over Glasgow Clan at a sold-out Braehead Arena, the sixth in a row.

Clan came flying out of the blocks and put three past Tyler Beskorowany over a five-minute spell to take complete control early on. Luke Lynch opened the scoring at 4:51 with the tip on a Matt Barry shot on the powerplay with 4:51 gone. A diving Matt Pelech got on the end of a Gary Haden pass to double the lead at 8:23, before the latter jammed the puck under Beskorowany's pad to make it 3-0 with 10:14 played. Adam Keefe called his timeout and somewhat laid into his team, which seemed to work when a nice passing play saw Henrik Eriksson get the visitors on the board at 11:59. Ryan Harrison shovelled a puck off the goal line to keep Clan two up.

David Goodwin scored his first of the season for the Giants at 27:16, capitlaising on a turnover to go through on a breakaway and beat Antti Karjalainen. Ciaran Long tied the game at 34:42, before Matt McLeod came in at the far post to slot home and put the Giants 4-3 ahead with 90 seconds left in period two.

Berry's slapshot in the slot at 46:11 tied the game up again, but who could have seen five more goals still to come in the final ten minutes. Blake Speers put the Giants back ahead with 6:31 to play, with Goodwin getting his second of the night at 56:12. A Dyson Stevenson powerplay goal cut the deficit back down to one with 2:17 to play, but Ciaran Long settled the points for the Giants on the empty net at the third attempt. Daniel Tedesco found it again with 40 seconds left to settle things.