It may not have been their most polished performance of the 2024/25 season, but Belfast Giants head coach Adam Keefe is still seeing progress from his side after their win over the Glasgow Clan on Wednesday.
Now three points clear at the top of Group B in the Challenge Cup and able to wrap up a Semi-Final place should they defeat Fife and Dundee at home at the weekend, the 3-0 win thanks to a double from Pierre-Olivier Morin and J.J. Piccinich’s empty-netter was just what was needed as the Giants strung together three straight wins for the first time in over a month.
While the overall display wasn’t fully convincing, Belfast resolute on defence to hand netminder Tom McCollum his first shut-out of the season but finding his Clan counterpart Lucas Brine tough to break down, Keefe still came away from the performance pleased to see his short-benched roster continue to put the building blocks in place for long-term success.
“We knew it was going to be a tough battle. Two weekends ago, we played (Glasgow) back-to-back and they were very difficult, specifically the first one in Glasgow, it was tough. Second one, the way it ended, we didn’t love,” recalled the head coach.
“We knew it was going to be a tough battle tonight, and it was. I do credit the guys for sticking with it because we felt our first period was definitely our best, and to come out of that level, we felt frustrated, but that’s the time when your team can start cheating for offence and get real frustrated, take some dumb penalties. Glasgow had a real pushback in the second period, put us under a little bit of pressure.
“But I do think we’re doing some of the little things better this weekend and last weekend that we weren’t doing a few weeks ago, stick battles in and around our net to help Tom out, and any time we did have some breakdowns, Tom was real good.”
Meanwhile, with Zak Galambos out long-term and Mike Lee having missed the previous four games through injury, the Giants have reinforced their blue-line with the signing of 24-year-old Canadian defenceman Karl Boudrias for the remainder of the 2024/25 season.
“I’m really pleased to start this new journey in Belfast. I’ve heard nothing but good things about Belfast and the winning culture of the Giants, so I’m looking forward to meeting the rest of the team and hitting the ice,” commented Boudrias, who joins from Slovakian side Nove Zamky.