The Belfast Giants, and Jordan Kawaguchi in particular, were feeling the love on Valentine’s Night as their lead at the top of the Elite League hit double digits for the first time this season with a mauling of the Fife Flyers at the SSE Arena.
The League leaders, led by the winger’s first hat-trick of the season as he continued his recent hot streak, hit their Scottish opponents for seven for the second game in a row — and added one more for good measure — although on this occasion, unlike their last meeting in Kirkcaldy, there would be no dramatic comeback from the Flyers as the Giants were merciless on home ice.
Across the third periods Belfast would put a remarkable 68 shots on former goaltender Shane Owen’s net and would see Tom McCollum face just 13 at the other end, although he will be frustrated at not keeping the shut-out given Massimo Carozza’s first period effort snuck through his pads rather innocuously.
But the Giants can certainly have no complaints at what they produced at the other end of the ice, Kawaguchi taking his scoring streak to five goals in his last three games by rattling in three of the hosts’ eight as they did the business to win the second game of this crucial six-game mini series.
Adam Keefe’s side are now ten points clear at the top of the table and they could end the weekend even further ahead as they now prepare for a massive trip to the second-placed Sheffield Steelers, who have two games in hand on the Giants, on Sunday.
How good of a preparation for that game this one was is questionable, though, as while Keefe was able to rest the likes of Karl Boudrias, Bobo Carpenter, Grant Mismash and Jackson Whistle for the trip to the Utilita Arena, they were offered very little resistance by an abject Fife side who were cut apart at will.
But there will be no shortage of confidence going around, anyway, as the Giants hit their stride in all three periods to win their fourth straight game in all competitions and extend their lead even further with just 16 games remaining in the title race.
They were ahead just 83 seconds into the contest when captain Mark Cooper grabbed his third goal in four games off Kawaguchi’s reverse feed into the left circle, but Carozza stunned the Giants when he tied it up at 3:43 and then Lucas Chiodo hit the crossbar to further add to the nerves.
But it proved a false dawn. J.J. Piccinich put the hosts back ahead at 9:47 with a fine solo effort before Pierre-Olivier Morin ended a nine-game stretch without a goal when he finished at 17:58, and inside the first 3:28 of the second period the game was gone.
Gabe Bast, who also struck the post in the first period, and Kawaguchi both scored within the first 40 seconds of the middle frame, and then the latter doubled his own tally for the sixth at 23:28 to end the game as a contest.
Scott Conway added the seventh 46 seconds into the third period and Kawaguchi rounded off the scoring with his hat-trick goal on the powerplay with 4:23 remaining.