After how well they did to battle to a point against the Nottingham Panthers while short-benched and dealing with travel fatigue on Sunday, to fall to a defeat in Glasgow with a full roster at their disposal will sting badly for the Belfast Giants.
Having welcomed back Jordan Kawaguchi and Ciaran Long to the line-up in order to run a full four lines, it felt like this was going to be something of a turning point for the Giants. Instead, they were on the end of the hairdryer treatment from Adam Keefe before the game had reached its halfway point.
By that stage, they were down by four. By the end of the first period they had been down by three and without their captain Mark Cooper who had been ejected for checking to the head, though that call seemed harsh.
And despite both Kawaguchi and Long scoring on their returns after injury to launch a comeback late in the second period, it was always too little, too late. Netminder Landon Bow stymied them, making 41 saves on the night and nemesis Mitchell Heard iced it with 1:35 left on the clock to ensure a dramatic late comeback wasn’t on the cards.
Having managed to claw back a point on both the CardiffDevils and Sheffield Steelers last weekend, it’s another step back for the inconsistent Giants who, despite last week’s loss in Nottingham being very much a positive point as opposed to a point lost, have now lost back-to-back games and, with a 7-4-2 record, are eight points back of the Devils having played two games less.
The Giants were three goals down before they could even blink as the Clan raced into a quickfire lead, Steven Seigo putting them ahead just 4:52 into the game when he picked the top corner from the right circle, with Rylan Schwartz adding the second when he was left all alone in front of net and deked around Tom McCollum — who had a rough night, making just 23 saves — to slide in the second at 12:35.
By the time Cooper was ejected, which drew Keefe’s first tirade on the bench only this time directed at the officials, his side were three down as Deven Sideroff’s backhanded effort somehow squeezed through the pads of McCollum, and then Keefe released his frustrations on his own players when Cole Ully tapped in their fourth 8:30 into the second period after the Giants’ special teams did superbly to kill of the entirety of Cooper’s major.
To his credit, Keefe’s outburst worked. Kawaguchi tipped in Bo Hanson’s slapshot to get his side on the board at 31:58 with his tenth goal of the season and then Long dribbled a shot through Bow’s five-hole at 36:15, his fourth of the year, to make it a two-goal game at the intermission.
But that was as good as it got for the Giants, although that wasn’t for a lack of trying as they peppered Bow with 18 shots in the final period alone, only to come up empty as they couldn’t even find one to make it interesting, passing up a big powerplay chance when Joseph Hazeldine was boxed for holding.
And they wouldn’t even get McCollum out for the extra skater, Heard grabbing the Clan’s fifth at the death, leaving Belfast headed to Dundee tonight empty-handed.
Meanwhile, Boston University and Notre Dame will contest the Championship Game at the Friendship Four as they defeated Merrimack and Harvard respectively at the SSE Arena.
BU were the first side into the decider, which faces off at 7pm tonight, as the Terriers eased past the Merrimack Warriors 6-2 in the afternoon game, before the Fighting Irish joined them with an equally comfortable 5-2 victory over the Harvard Crimson.
Merrimack and Harvard will contest the Consolation Game at 3pm.