Giants come back from 4 down for OT win

Photo: Scott Stevens

Belfast Giants came back from four goals down to beat Coventry Blaze in overtime at the Skydome.

“Coventry made a pretty early push, and we have to be ready for that. We didn’t start how we wanted,” explained Giants forward Scott Conway. “Second period we regrouped and everything went as planned - we got pucks to the net, and then in the third we got pucks deep and played simple. It was a big comeback win for us.”

The hosts made a fast start and opened the scoring when Elijah Barriga fed Matthew Gleason, whose initial chance was mistimed but who soon made amends by setting up Barriga to fire home. Coventry doubled their lead through Gleason on a 4-on-4 break before Grant Mismash made it 3-0 less than a minute later.

“I thought we came out really well, flying and making plays, but I think we got a bit complacent,” said Blaze forward Matthew Gleason. “You have to give credit to Belfast - they played a great game that second half. For us, we have to work out how to keep that first period for the whole 60 minutes.”

The Blaze extended their advantage to four early in the second period when Adam Robbins finished from close range. Belfast responded quickly, however, as Jordan Kawaguchi got them on the board before Mike Lee and Jake Gaudet struck in quick succession to cut the deficit to 4-3.

JJ Piccinich tied the game with just under 10 minutes to play to set up an exciting finish. With the sides level at the end of regulation, the visitors completed the comeback in overtime when Scott Conway scored the winner just 26 seconds into the extra period.

“I’ve had a lot of ups and downs this year, for that one to go in definitely felt good,” added Conway. “We have a lot of tough games coming up - I need to do that a few more times.”