Elite League: Giants rout Panthers to seal weekend double

A depleted Belfast Giants impressed with a 7-2 hammering of Nottingham Panthers to complete a four-point weekend at the SSE Arena.

The hosts followed up Saturday's 3-1 win over Fife Flyers by brushing aside the English team, with Scott Conway netting a hat-trick.

Lewis Hook scored twice while Tyler Soy and Kevin Raine were also on target for the Giants.

Nottingham's goals came from Jeremy Welsh and Matthew Lane.

• Giants secure league win over Flyers

Icing with only four regular defencemen and seven forwards, the roster was supplemented by local players Mack Stewart, Carter Hamill and Adam Robinson.

The Giants were missing five players through injuries and suspension and cobbled together a third line with defenceman Mark Garside playing forward alongside Stewart.

Delight for Scott Conway after the Giants forward scores against Nottingham

However, despite being so short-benched they took the game to Nottingham from the start and deservedly took the lead at 6:06 when Hook's pass found Soy all alone in the slot and his wrist shot went high over the glove of netminder Kevin Carr.

In fact if it wasn't for the Panthers goalie the Giants would have been further ahead but they had to kill a couple of powerplays for the visitors before they stretched their lead with 89 seconds remaining in the period.

Justin Boucher's anticipation in intercepting the puck behind the Panthers net eventually led to the puck breaking to Raine, who buried it in the bottom corner.

Another turnover, this time by Soy, who stole the puck and found Hook for the finish shortly after the start of the second period to make it 3-0 but a mistake in handling the puck from Giants goalie Tyler Beskorowany allowed Welsh the tap-in.

It was the catalyst for some sustained Panthers pressure as the home side began to look tired. Beskorowany made up for his error with a number of big stops before his opposite number had to leave the ice because of injury.

Boucher cut across the crease and was cross-checked into Carr by JC Brassard. The Panthers netminder received lengthy treatment before being helped into the locker room and was replaced by William Kerlin.

He found Conway's one-timer on a two-man advantage too hot to handle as the Giants restored their three-goal lead. Only the crossbar stopped that from being four but the Panthers capitalised on that let-off by immediately cutting the deficit to 4-2 through Matthew Lane

The final period began exactly like the second did, with Soy's beautiful assist from behind the net finding Hook for his second of the game. Conway's solo effort made it 6-2 as the Giants never let up and he finished off his treble on the powerplay while the icing on the cake came from Stewart, who was credited with an assist, his first point as a Giant.

Giants coach Adam Keefe said: "I'm very proud - they were great to a man across the roster. I said, going into the third period, it didn't matter what the result was. Up to then I was very happy with the effort.

"We just said that we've got to want more and you guys deserve more. You could tell in the third period they were not going to be denied."

Sheffield Steelers are next up for the Giants with the Elite League leaders making their first visit of the season to Belfast for a big doubleheader on Friday and Saturday nights.