Elite League: Belfast Giants see off Manchester Storm 7-2 at SSE Arena

The Belfast Giants made it a three-game winning streak with a 7-2 win over the Manchester Storm in the first game of the weekend Elite League double-header between the sides at the SSE Arena.

Darcy Murphy and David Goodwin each scored twice for the Giants with Ben Lake, Ciaran Long and JJ Piccinich also on the scoresheet.

The Giants were helped with the scheduling as this was the middle game of three in three nights for Manchester with coach Ryan Finnerty starting back-up netminder James Downie.

However it was the visitors who opened the scoring with their first shot on goal from Tyson Fawcett after only 83 seconds.

The Giants though were laying siege to the Storm net and equalised when Goodwin's bad-angled shot hit Downie's pad and Lake had an easy finish.

Shorthanded Murphy scored his first of the season to give the Giants the lead and Piccinich added a third on a breakaway before the end of the first period.

The game followed a similar pattern in the second period although Downie was doing his best to make sure the Giants didn't run up the score.

It took until the 13 minute mark for him to be beaten again as Mark Cooper, who earlier had the crowd on their feet by dropping the gloves with Linden Springer, found Goodwin for another close range finish but Manchester pulled a goal back on the powerplay through Jared Vanwormer.

Murphy's beautiful wrist shot, his second of the game, closely followed by another for Goodwin early in the final period finished the game as a contest.

There was still time for Long to score to complete the Giants biggest win of the season.

The sides meet again at the SSE Arena on Sunday at 16:00 GMT.