If the Belfast Giants go on to win the Elite League title at the end of the season it is highly likely they will look back on this game as crucial in their success.
To describe the 4-3 overtime win over the Dundee Stars as dramatic would be doing the game a disservice. Epic might be a more accurate word.
The Giants were behind from the ninth minute, had an equalising goal chalked off and with six minutes of regulation time remaining trailed 3-1 and looked down and out.
Somehow though they won the game, scoring two goals within 71 seconds before Ben Lake rattled home the game-winning strike just 24 seconds into overtime.
Had the Giants been able to do what they did in the final six minutes and 16 seconds of play earlier in the game there would have been no need to all the panic, urgency and sweat. They had dominated the game, particularly in the first period, but were mightily relieved when Jackson Whistle made a superb save to prevent Dundee from going 4-2 up before Jordan Kawaguchi’s equaliser.
There would have been no way back from that.
While the Giants hit 26 shots at Jarrett Fiske’s goal in the opening period they had nothing to show for their efforts. Kawaguchi, Lake and Mark Cooper were all frustrated in their efforts to score and Dundee executed a superb breakaway when Jonathan McBean stole the puck in his own zone, sent Jake Elmer in behind the Giants defence and he beat Whistle high one-on-one from the slot to open the scoring at 8:29.
The Giants thought they had equalised midway through the second period. Indeed Mark Cooper did put the puck into the net in the midst of a scramble in front of goal. The officials ruled that Fiske, who had been superb in keeping the Giants at bay, had control of the puck and the scoreline remained at 1-0.
That became 2-0 at 33:23 when Elmer doubled both his own and Dundee’s tally by deflecting Kyle Pouncy’s shot from the blueline past the wrong-footed Whistle.
It took a powerplay for the Giants to finally get on the scoreboard.
With the numerical advantage they poured forward and JJ Piccinich was quickest to the puck after Cooper’s shot was saved, lifting it over Fiske’s pads and into the net.
The Giants really needed to score the next goal if they were to turn the game around and when Brendan Harms went behind the net and sent the puck right out in front of the Giants goal for Spencer Naas to make it 3-1 at 44:29 it looked like the game was done and dusted.
That, however, was when the Giants upped the ante, scored once, increased the belief that they could still get something out of the game and then went on to win it.
Dundee made a mess of clearing their own zone and when the puck his one of their players Scott Conway punished the mistake when he swept home past a crowd of bodies the loose puck at 54:08.
Although that gave the Giants hope of a comeback it would have been wiped out had Harms netted on a breakaway, but Whistle’s outstanding save did as much to win the game as anything else that happened after it as the Giants went to the opposite end of the ice, Mike Lee skated into the right circle, swept in a backhand effort and Kawaguchi tipped in to level things up at 55:19.
There might even have been a late winner for Dundee only for Whistle to make another huge save, this time doing all he could to keep out Kameron Kielly’s effort.
A breathless and pulsating ending had one more act.
Overtime had only just got going when Cooper broke forward on goal, Fiske swept the puck away from him to prevent the shot, but could do nothing as it then ran to Lake, who despite being off balance was able to fire home the game-winning goal.