Flames got an early lead, and twice led by a pair, but ultimately finished regulation with a table point from a 3-3 regulation tie before penalties were needed where Belfast Giants got the winner in the 2nd round to secure a 4-3 final at SSE Arena.
Just 55 seconds in Austin Glover set Flames in front. Ethan Strang added to it at 15:53, but a late period powerplay goal from Mark Cooper cut the hosts deficit in half to begin the 2nd
Flames powerplay re-stored a 2 goal margin near the midway mark off the stick of Josh Waller.
A couple of minutes past re-start in the 3rd, Bobo Carpenter cut it to a single, and Giants evened it thanks to J.J. Piccinich on a powerplay a little over 3 minutes from time setting up tiebreaking measures.
In overtime, Flames enjoyed a 4 on 3 powerplay but were unable to close it out before Grant Mismash and Scott Conway on the 1st and 6th penalties, respectively, found success against Ethan Strang’s lone marker in 6 Flames chances.
Eamon McAdam turned away 40 of 43 shots while Tom McCollum for Giants was 23 of 26.
“At times you would have described our play as a smart road game earlier on but in the 3rd period we leaned back on Eamon far too much and allowed Belfast to really pressure us which opened their path to erasing the deficit,” said Paul Dixon.
“We are glad we got a point in a building we rarely get anything, but like our last overtime again we failed to turn the powerplay chance into a win so we are disappointed not to have turned the game in our favour at that point.”
“We have a brand new tough start tomorrow at home against Cardiff so we need to put this one on the shelf and start looking at how we can get both points on home ice.”
