Giants finish league season with road win

Photo: Scott Wiggins

Belfast Giants ended the season with a 5-4 win over Coventry Blaze in each team’s final game before the playoffs.

“It was a bit of a slow start for us, lacking some details,” admitted Blaze’s Grayson Constable. “We came good in the third but left it a little too late.”

The Giants opened the scoring just under three minutes in, with Scott Conway firing home from the blue line on the powerplay. Ben Lake made it 2-0 at 13:03, driving through the crease and finishing past Mat Robson. With 3:06 left in the period, Alessio Luciani got the Blaze on the board, skating into the zone and firing top corner from a tight angle.

Belfast restored their two-goal advantage just over three minutes into the second period, finishing off an odd-man rush at the back door. Coventry thought they had another midway through the period through Adam Robbins, but the goal was waved off for offside. With 3:34 remaining, William Boysen’s shot rebounded off Alex Caffi’s pads and Matthew Gleason fired home to cut the deficit to one heading into the third.

Jordan Kawaguchi put the Giants back two ahead 58 seconds into the third, although former Giant Grant Mismash pulled one back for the Blaze with just over 10 minutes to play. Conway’s second of the night at 52:20, reviewed for a potential kick, proved to be the game-winner, before Jordan Power reduced the deficit to one with 2:35 remaining as Coventry pushed with the extra skater but fell just short.

“We’re a high-pressure team, we play really well in elimination-type games, which I think we showed in the Challenge Cup,” added Constable. “We’ll have a couple of days’ rest here and then get back to work.”