Netminder Tom McCollum turned in a 31-save performance to help shut down the Glasgow Clan and five different scorers found the net as the Belfast Giants returned to winning ways in the Elite League on Sunday afternoon.
The goaltender wasn’t overly tested until the third period at the SSE Arena but came up with the saves when required to keep the Scots at bay, only beaten by a scrappy Michael Pelech goal midway through the final frame as the visitors attempted a comeback.
Having dropped Saturday’s game to the Fife Flyers – a result which still confirmed their top seeding for the Challenge Cup knockouts – this was a good response from Adam Keefe’s team as they picked up two points in their only Elite League game of the weekend, although they didn’t have to be all that impressive against a lacklustre Clan side.
Goals from forwards Scott Conway, Grant Mismash, Bobo Carpenter and J.J. Piccinich were expected, but defenceman Karl Boudrias continued his own hot scoring start to life in Belfast with one of the flukiest goals you may ever see in hockey, let alone for the Giants.
It was the blue-liner who opened the scoring at 6:35 with his second in five games since his mid-season arrival, not that he knew much about it, Mismash’s shot from the left circle rebounding off the shoulder of Clan netminder Landon Bow and in off the chin of the supporting Boudrias.
The win sees the Giants cut the deficit to the League-leading Cardiff Devils, who did not play this weekend due to their involvement in the Continental Cup, to seven points having played two games less, improving their record to 6-3-1 having bounced back not just from the loss to the Flyers but last weekend’s defeat to the Sheffield Steelers.
Belfast were comfortably the better side in the first two periods and after Boudrias’ opener had put them ahead, Conway’s tenth goal of the season doubled their lead at 14:44 on the three-on-one breakaway after the Giants failed to capitalise on a Simon Després hooking call.
It was on their fourth powerplay of the game that the hosts added their third, calls on Robert Lachowicz (interference) and a too many men minor going unpunished before a Pelech slashing call eventually led to Mismash grabbing his sixth goal of the year, jamming the puck in at the back post at 36:09 to extend the lead to three.
To that point the Clan had offered scant little, Mitchell Heard hitting the crossbar in the first period about the only opportunity they got, but a strong start to the third period was rewarded when they pulled it back to a 3-1 game at 50:43 as Pelech scrambled in the loose puck at the crease after Lachowicz’s initial shot had been saved by McCollum.
But Keefe called his timeout to perfection straight after the goal to halt Glasgow’s momentum and it was rewarded when Pierre-Olivier Morin timed his pass perfectly to set up Carpenter for the two-on-one breakaway goal at 54:47, which ended the game as a contest, with Piccinich jumping on a blue-line turnover and beating Bow one-on-one at 57:30 to add some more gloss to the scoreline with his ninth of the season.