The Belfast Giants passed up a glorious chance to take another step towards the Elite League title as, despite out-shooting the Manchester Storm 53-27 at Planet Ice Altrincham, they couldn’t find that clinical edge as the home side took advantage to steal two points.
Adam Keefe’s side could have opened up a seven-point lead at the top of the League standings and it looked like they were going to when they mounted a third-period comeback from 3-1 down, only for Alexis d’Aoust to find the winner with 5:13 remaining against the run of play.
Now 30-9-3 on the season, the Giants are still very much in the driving seat for the League title given their favourable run-in and that they still have that advantage on the second-placed Sheffield Steelers, however they will know they passed up a glorious opportunity to stretch their lead in Manchester.
Despite goals from Grant Mismash, David Goodwin and Gabe Bast, their inability to unlock David Tendeck more than three times, the Storm netminder making a remarkable 50 saves, cost them and means the title race is still in the balance.
“I thought our guys were pretty good tonight. We couldn’t really solve Tendeck there for a long time,” admitted Keefe.
“We don’t start the third period the right way, giving up a 2-on-0 goal – that’s disappointing. That’s kinda the theme of why we lost the hockey game, we didn’t play the right way in the third period and gave up two goals.
“It doesn’t matter what type of comeback you have, you can’t give them freebies and we gave them freebies, some pretty good looks and a breakaway, a 2-on-1 goal and a 2-on-0. The best player on Manchester (D’Aoust), you give him time and space like that and let him walk in and pick his spot, you lose a hockey game.
“That all being said, I thought we had plenty of opportunities to win that hockey game or to be in the lead. We couldn’t solve Tendeck for a long time and we left it too little, too late, not enough time in the third period to get another one back. We probably took too many penalties but was there a lot missed by the referees the other way? I think so, yeah.
“It is what it is, we lose two points here. I thought the effort was good, the comeback was great. I thought Manchester played really well as well, though, so kudos to them.”
Much like in Nottingham on Wednesday, it was penalty trouble that hamstrung the Giants and, although they were able to kill off an early hooking call on Mark Cooper, it was shortly after that Cam Critchlow gave the Storm the lead when he tipped in Joe Morrow’s shot at 5:19.
It was on the powerplay that the Storm’s second came, though, as back-to-back calls on Scott Conway (high-sticking) and Ciaran Long (tripping) left the visitors with too much to do and eventually Ryan Hughes was able to make them pay with a tight angle finish at 8:50 to double the hosts’ lead.
But from there the affair became rather one-sided as the Giants laid siege to Tendeck’s goal and but for the netminder the game would have been flipped on its head much sooner, the Canadian making a string of big saves to keep the visitors at bay, while even when Conway did get one past the goaltender it pinged off the crossbar and out of play rather than finding the twine.
But having killed off their fourth penalty of the night — Goodwin boxed for hooking — it was on their first powerplay that the Giants got back within one with 3:42 to the second intermission, Dallas Ehrhardt’s slashing call punished by Mismash, who took Mike Lee’s dish to the right circle and cannoned his one-timer in off the left post.
But just 59 seconds into the third period the Storm got their two-goal lead back, an unfortunate slip from Ben Lake allowing Hughes to feed Tyler Hinam in the left circle for the one-time finish, and it seemed like the Giants were out of luck when a shot from Cooper pinged off the post instead of nestling in the bottom corner.
In the blink of an eye, though, they turned it around. Bast was the orchestrator for Goodwin’s strike at 4:41 of the final period, the defenceman putting the puck across goal for the winger to tap in at the back post and he then got the equaliser exactly five minutes later when his shot from the blue-line went through traffic and all the way in.
Keefe’s men had their chances to win it but will rue two missed powerplay chances as Chase Harrison (cross-checking) and Jake Durflinger (tripping) both sat but the Giants couldn’t capitalise, and it was only 14 seconds after the latter expired that D’Aoust struck the winner against the run of play, rifling home from the left circle on the breakaway.
Keefe pulled Tom McCollum in the dying stages for the extra skater but it was in vain as Storm held on to inflict back-to-back defeats on the Giants.