Challenge Cup: Giants thump Blaze to make semi-finals
- Published
JJ Piccinich scores in the comfortable victory over Coventry on Wednesday night
Belfast Giants eased into the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup with a 5-1 home win over the Coventry Blaze securing a 7-4 aggregate victory.
There were five different scorers for the SSE Arena side with JJ Piccinich, David Goodwin, Slater Doggett, Scott Conway and Lewis Hook on target.
Janne Kivilahti spoilt the shutout bid by Tyler Beskorowany late in the game but it was merely a consolation.
The Giants will have home advantage for their semi-final.
With the disruption to the schedule over the past month because of Covid-19 issues the Elite League announced this week that the semi-finals will be a one-off game.
It was a sloppy start to the second leg by the Giants with Beskorowany called upon to bail out his defensemen after a number of giveaways in their own zone.
JJ Piccinich celebrates netting the opener against the Blaze
But just as it has been so often this season it didn't take long for the top line to pop up with the opening goal.
A turnover of their own created an odd man rush and Goodwin played it perfectly finding Piccinich. who buried the opening goal of the game and tied the aggregate score.
Minutes later the favour was returned as Piccinich took his time and found Goodwin, who beat Blaze netminder CJ Motte.
With the Giants now ahead in the tie they pulled away with two second-period strikes.
The first came when Doggett deflected Mark Cooper's shot past Motte and then on the powerplay Goodwin set up the third member of the scoring threesome Scott Conway, who had the easy one-timer finish to make it 4-0.
The victory was wrapped up with a shorthanded breakaway goal from Hook late in the third period as he scored at the second attempt after Motte stopped his original effort.
There was still time for Kivilahti to net against a Giants side which will resume league business at home on Friday night with a first visit of the season by the Cardiff Devils, as the Giants put their 10-game winning streak on the line against the league leaders.