Belfast Giants scored 3 unanswered goals in less than 4 minutes at the end of the opening frame before hanging on the rest of the way for a 3-1 win over the Flames on Spectrum ice.
Exactly 16 minutes in, Giants powerplay put them in front through Pierre Oliver-Morin. Only 29 seconds later they doubled it up thanks to Elijiah Barriga and just 23 ticks from period close, Grant Mismash ensured Spectrum’s men would be 3 goals adrift to begin the 2nd.
Charlie Dodero cut one off the deficit with a goal at 24:24. It was the only one of the period and Flames remained 2 goals off the pace at the break and eventually through full time despite heavy pressure and a long closing run with an empty net and an extra skater combined with a last minute powerplay that could not eat into the difference.
Jake Kupsky made 18 saves on 21 shots for Flames while Tom McCollom was 31 of 32.
“That first period was unfortunate that we had as much of the play, and we did have some of our own chances and were probably not far off at least even with Belfast, and they came out of there 3 goals up including some very fortuitous bounces on the back of what were initial saves,” said Paul Dixon.
“We didn’t deserve to be buried as deep as that in the period but that is how it went in putting us in the unenviable position of a climb back the rest of the night against a team of that calibre.”
“Again, the result didn’t exactly reflect the game. We pushed them hard in the 2nd and 3rd, but could not cut the deficit with some high quality chances.”
“We are up again tomorrow night at Cardiff so we need to keep pushing teams and find ways to be better on making the most of the good chances.”
