Belfast Giants started their weekend of road games in England with a road win in Guildford, all of their goals coming in the opening period.
The Flames had the better of the early chances, only a Cameron Pound poke-check taking the puck off Josh Waller’s stick and then Jake Jacome shooting over stopping the hosts going ahead.
However, Belfast hit three goals in the final four minutes of the opening period to take control of the game. Grant Mismash’s pass into the slot set up Pierre-Olivier Morin for the close finish on the powerplay on the 16-minute mark to open the scoring, while 29 seconds later a Scott Conway pass across the slot found Elijiah Barriga for a shot on Jake Kupsky – the Flames netminder stopped his attempt, but the puck rebounded terribly off Charlie Dodero’s skate and into the net to make it 2-0. Mismash then found the net himself with 23 seconds left in the period to put the Giants into a comfortable lead.
Daniel Tedesco set up Dodero to get the Flames on the board, the defenseman’s neat hands deking Tom McCollum 4:24 into period two to get the host back in the game. After Daniel Catenacci almost finished off a pretty Flames passing move, Adam Keefe called his timeout with 6:05 left in period two with the Giants giving up too much for their coach’s liking – it worked, as they took their two-goal lead into the second break.
The atmosphere in the Spectrum remained flat despite the home sides still having 20 minutes to find two goals. Paul Dixon pulled Kupsky for the extra skater with 2:22 to play, but the Flames still couldn’t get a second. A late penalty on Scott Conway gave the Flames a powerplay with 26 seconds left to play, but to no avail as Giants held on for a 3-1 win.
Photo: John Uwins