Steve Saviano scores four as Belfast Giants hammer Manchester Storm 9-3

Steve Saviano scored four goals for Belfast against Manchester

The Belfast Giants ended their three-game Elite League losing streak by hammering the Manchester Storm 9-3 at the SSE Arena on Sunday.

Steve Saviano led the Giants' offensive explosion with four goals while Darcy Murphy scored twice for the hosts.

Colin Shields, Sebastien Sylvestre and John Kurtz were also on target.

The Storm began the day as league leaders but saw Nottingham overtake them and the Giants close to within a point in third place.

It was a frantic start to the game with the Giants taking a 4-1 lead before six minutes had been played.

Saviano began the offensive outburst after only 45 seconds as his shot bounced in off Storm netminder Mike Clemente.

Murphy went 5-hole on Clemente next at 2:55 and 12 seconds later it was 3-0 when Shields slid the puck home.

Not to be outdone the Storm scored on their first shot of the game through Gerard Hanson but Saviano converted Sebastian Sylvestre's pass shortly after.

The end-to-end hockey didn't stop there although there was just one more goal before the first intermission when Mike Hammond's wrist shot closed the gap to 4-2.

The goals weren't about to dry up for the home side in the second period as they added four more.

Murphy started the onslaught with his second before Saviano helped himself to a pair of powerplay markers for his third and fourth goals of the game and then turned provider setting up Sylvestre to make the score 8-2 with 20 minutes remaining.

A brilliant solo effort from Kurtz as he split the Storm defence before roofing the puck on the back hand was the highlight of the final period with Luke Moffat relying for the visitors.

This was the Giants' last game at the SSE Arena until after Christmas as they now embark on a 10-game road trip starting in Coventry next Saturday night.