Belfast Giants kept up the pressure on league leaders Cardiff Devils with a shutout victory over Nottingham Panthers on Friday at the SSE Arena.
Jackson Whistle stopped all 27 shots put on him. “It was nice to do something for the team tonight. I thought we played pretty well out there as a group too,” said the Giants goalie. “The guys were really diving about, trying to block shots, especially at the end of the last two periods when they were really piling it on. The team just did a great job, and every time you get a shutout it really is a team effort.”
Both sets of fans made their presence known in a sold-out crowd of 6,622, as Nottingham fans arrived in numbers for the double-header in Belfast.
Both the Giants and Panthers had early opportunities on the powerplay, but neither could capitalise.
Two good chances fell to Mark Cooper, who had two breakaways in the space of two minutes while the Giants killed a penalty. However, he was denied well on both occasions by Jason Grande.
The Giants managed to grab an opener with 40 seconds remaining. Ben Lake cut the puck back to Jeff Baum in the left circle, who unleashed a bullet into the top corner to put the Giants a goal up at 19:20.
It was a scoreless but entertaining second period as both sides had chances, but neither could capitalise on them.
The best opportunity fell to Didrik Henbrant, who was played through with only Jackson Whistle to beat. However, Whistle made himself big and ensured that the Giants’ clean sheet remained intact. Whistle made further important saves to keep the Giants ahead, as they remained a goal ahead going into the third period.
Having not managed to score on a Ciaran Long holding minor with just over osts. ten minutes to go, the Panthers rolled the dice by pulling Grande with 82 seconds remaining. JJ Piccinich, however, found the empty net at 59:12 to wrap up the game for the hosts.
“Winning tonight was huge, especially in this league, you don’t want to go on a losing streak,” added Whistle. “Every time you lose a game or two you’ve got to bounce back straight away because everyone is kinda nipping at your heals and you’re pushing too to get first place so it’s going to be a real battle from here going forward.”
The two teams will do it all again in Belfast on Saturday night.
Photo: William Cherry