For weeks now, the narrative around the Belfast Giants has been that they would hit top spot in the Elite League if they won their games in hand. When the games in question finally came around, they didn’t miss the target.
Knowing the opportunity was there to reach the summit with League leaders the Cardiff Devils inactive due to their Continental Cup involvement, the Giants did their job by firstly overcoming the Sheffield Steelers 4-2 on Saturday night before backing it up by downing the Manchester Storm on Sunday afternoon.
The latter game wasn’t their most vintage performance by any stretch. They needed to hold on for dear life as two first-period powerplay goals from Bobo Carpenter and JJ Piccinich, along with Gabe Bast’s game-winner with 30 seconds left to the first intermission, allowed them to secure the two points despite Manchester fighting back through Alexis D’Aoust and a powerplay goal of their own from Craig Martin.
But, in the end, a 25-save performance from netminder Jackson Whistle and a 4-for-5 night for the penalty kill helped the Giants improve to 21-6-3 and move a point clear of the Devils, and despite having ‘We are No.1’ chanted at them by the SSE Arena crowd after the final buzzer, head coach Adam Keefe insists the mindset won’t change despite moving up a spot.
“There’s only one way to win, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re in first or second place. You’ve got to find those wins to keep the pressure on the teams above you when you’re chasing and on the teams below you when you’re leading,” maintained Keefe.
“That requires consistency and finding the right way to play by making the right decisions on and off the ice. Those things don’t change from second to first.
“For us, it’s a nice token, it’s a nice reward that this team has put themselves into the position to be first in January – I think the last time that happened was 11 years ago. That’s a nice reward for that, but that only lasts so long.
“We have to find that consistency level to win that Championship and we didn’t have it tonight. We had it against Sheffield and we’re going to need it on Wednesday, on Saturday (against Coventry) and then on Sunday in Cardiff. All the games are massive.”
Bobo Carpenter finds the net for the Belfast Giants during their victory over the Manchester Storm
Carpenter’s 15th goal of the 2024/25 season on the powerplay – Loren Ulett called for tripping – gave the Giants the lead at 10:31 as some tic-tac-toe hockey from David Goodwin and Grant Mismash set up the winger for the one-timer, followed by Piccinich – who hit the frame of the goal twice in the first period – finishing off a similarly nice passing play involving Jordan Kawaguchi and Mark Cooper at 15:27 on the first of a double-minor to D’Aoust for high-sticking.
When Bast picked his spot from the slot with half a minute to the first intermission for his fifth of the year, it seemed like that was game over, but Manchester had other plans.
Seemingly sparked into life by netminder Evan Weninger having to leave the game after a collision with Carpenter early in the middle frame, the Storm struck twice either side of the second intermission, D’Aoust batting a bobbling Dallas Ehrhardt shot in from close range at 36:25 and then a Ciaran Long cross-checking call allowing Martin to snap in the one-timer on the powerplay 48 seconds after the restart.
Despite holding on in a nervy third period for the win, Keefe was less than impressed and knows they will need better for a midweek trip to the Guildford Flames on Wednesday.
Bobo Carpenter wheels away after his goal for the Belfast Giants against the Manchester Storm
“We switched off. We thought we were going to boss that game, it was 3-0 and we lost focus, lost engagement. That’s the lesson to take from tonight. We got the two points but not the way we wanted to get it done,” fumed the Giants chief.
“Being first place, we want to hold onto that. We don’t want to be first place for a couple of days. We’re going to have to rise again and come with a lot more energy on Wednesday in Guildford.
“An emotional game against Sheffield (on Saturday) night certainly plays a factor, but I’m not in the business of making excuses, you’ve got to turn up the next night and be good.
“If you don’t have the energy, then you have to play smart, and we didn’t do either of those things, which is why we found ourselves fighting in that third period.
“There’s a lesson to be taken out of that, and if I’m saying that next weekend and the week after that, then we’re in trouble. If that’s a one-off and we turn up on Wednesday with energy and looking more like ourselves, we’ll be alright.”