Rarely does a coach feel so strongly that he decides to use his timeout in the first period.
That, however, is what Belfast Giants chief Adam Keefe deemed necessary after less than seven and a half minutes of his team’s battle with Coventry Blaze.
By that time Coventry had already built up a 2-0 lead after going in front with just 65 seconds on the clock and fearing that things could escalate from there, Keefe felt it was time to talk.
Whatever he said or did definitely had an impact. By the 15-minute mark the Giants were level, and they didn’t concede again, but they still only came away with a point at the end.
All the goalscoring action was crammed into that opening period and at the end of what was otherwise a fairly uneventful 2-2 draw, Coventry took the win in a penalty shoot-out.
While there will naturally be a level of disappointment in the Giants ranks, a point will be looked upon as a positive after that awful start to the game.
Jackson Whistle had already been called into action before Coventry did manage to find a way past him in a dream start. They raced away on a two-on-one and Nick Seitz drew Whistle to one side before he found Alessio Luciani waiting in the slot all on his own and he squeezed his shot into the net.
Luciani and Seltz were the architects of the second Coventry goal at 7.25, the latter finding the former before a pass from the left across for Grayson Constable, who had skated in unchecked, to finish as Whistle tried to scramble across his net.
To say that Keefe wasn’t happy would be an understatement. He did get a reaction quickly after the timeout, Gabe Bast firing in a shot from distance that ended with the puck rebounding into the Giants zone, and Whistle was excellent in first saving from Constable and then denying Luciani in another two-on-one before the comeback really kicked in.
There was just three and a half minutes between the timeout and the goal that brought the Giants back into the game as they broke almost immediately from that save by Whistle.
Scott Conway got the end of his stick to the puck to divert it into the path of JJ Piccinich and he took it on well before firing high into the net at 10.56.
That goal seemed to settle the Giants, and they tested Coventry goalkeeper Mat Robson a couple of times and then levelled at 14.39 when, after Ben Lake won a face-off, Jeff Baum fired in a shot from distance that flew through a crowd of bodies before hitting the top corner of the net.
Mark Cooper almost completed a dramatic turnaround on a short-handed attack while Josh Roach sat in the penalty box, but amazingly after that breathless opening there were no more goals in the game.
It wasn’t for the want of chances. Constable dinged the pipes midway through the second period, just after a spell of pressure from the Giants.
Kyle Osterberg had a chance snuffed out, Cooper shot wide and Bobo Carpenter found his route to goal blocked as the Giants pushed for a third-period winner.
Roach could have won the game in overtime, but Robson closed his pads to keep the puck out of the net.
Only one of the first six efforts in the shoot-out found the net, Seitz scoring as Pierre-Olivier Morin, Lake and Conway all failed to convert for the Giants.
Piccinich levelled before Terrance Amorosa struck to keep Coventry ahead. Grant Mismash slotted home the last of the Giants’ five, leaving it to Kim Tallberg to win the game or Whistle to take it to sudden death and the Coventry man scored to secure the extra point.