Head coach Adam Keefe admitted that the Belfast Giants simply weren’t good enough as they both missed the chance to extend their lead at the top of the Elite League standings to nine points and saw their eight-game winning streak ended with a flat defeat at the Dundee Stars.
Zak Galambos struck his second goal in three games but, for the most part, the Giants failed to solve the puzzle that was home netminder Richard Sabol, who made 37 saves — including four key stops against Mark Cooper in particular — to secure the win.
After surviving a scare against the Fife Flyers on Saturday, scoring twice in the final 50 seconds for a 7-5 win over the League’s basement side, Keefe’s side did not heed the warning and a day later lost for the first time since January 5.
The hosts were two goals to the good at the first intermission through Spencer Naas and Cole MacDonald and, although Galambos reduced the deficit to one 8:38 into the final frame, Domenico Alberga sealed the win for the Stars with a superb redirect just 1:47 later.
With their first loss in just under a month, the Giants fall to 25-7-3 on the season and see their lead at the top of the table cut to seven points as the Sheffield Steelers’ win over the Cardiff Devils elevated them into second.
“Not good enough, clearly,” fumed the head coach.
“Obviously Sabol had a great game. We didn’t score on our chances, they did. Those two goals, the freebies as I like to call them, in the first period puts us behind the eight-ball. I thought Dundee was battling all night, winning foot races, winning stick battles in and around the nets on both ends.
“Did we do enough to fight back? No, because we didn’t score. We had our opportunities but we didn’t score. That third one, that takes the wind out of the sail a bit. It would have been nice to score one with the goalie out but not good enough.
“We had too many players not have very good nights and you become a very average hockey team, especially when you play a fast, skilled Dundee team that’s working like they were and we didn’t match it.”
Although the Giants started the game the stronger, the home side pulled ahead by two with goals less than two minutes apart, Naas beating Jackson Whistle — 28 saves — five-hole from the left circle at 9:24 and then MacDonald also rifling in from almost the same spot at 11:10.
That was how it stayed until the third period, with Sabol doing a great job at frustrating the visitors, in particular Cooper who had several excellent chances to get the Giants on the board but each time — bar one effort ringing off the post — was frustrated by the Slovakian.
It felt like it just wasn’t going to be the Giants’ night when they failed to capitalise on their only full powerplay of the game; Keanu Yamamoto’s holding penalty split over the second intermission, but Galambos breathed life into their effort when he was found skating into the right circle by Jordan Kawaguchi and finally beat Sabol.
But less than two minutes later, Alberga squashed the visitors’ momentum as he inexplicably managed to redirect a shot from Drydn Dow into the roof of the net while falling to the ice having tussled with Gabe Bast in front of the net, restoring the Stars’ two-goal lead at 50:25.
The Giants didn’t help their fightback as Ben Lake and Bast both took avoidable penalties, the former called for a hook at the blue line and the latter boxed for arguing too strenuously after an offside call, with Keefe’s men even unable to force a consolation goal in the dying stages with Whistle pulled for the extra skater.
“The penalties that we took, that’s not what we need, that’s not going to help us score a goal. It’s just managing the game well and we didn’t do it,” added Keefe.
“Credit to Dundee, they came to play tonight and we had too many guys that didn’t, and that cost us two points.”