Elite League: Belfast Giants hammer Fife Flyers at home to stay in title race
- Published
The Giants will continue their push for the title away to the Nottingham Panthers on Sunday
The Belfast Giants maintained their title charge in the Elite League with a 7-1 victory over the Fife Flyers at the SSE Arena.
The hosts had to come from behind for the win, with two goals each from Mark Cooper and Scott Conway, as well as scores from JJ Piccinich, Slater Doggett and Tyler Soy.
The visitors started brightly, testing Jackson Whistle in the Belfast goal in the early exchanges before the Giants began to assert control.
Fife broke the deadlock as forward Carson Stadnyk tipped the puck past Whistle five minutes before the first interval.
The Giants got back into the game a little over five minutes after the break through a short-handed goal. With Ciaran Long sitting out two minutes for hooking, Piccinich scored a fine individual effort, his 29th of the season, breaking clear down the ice and finishing past Shane Owen in the Fife goal at the second attempt.
Belfast then took the lead on the half-hour mark, profiting from a turnover in front of the Flyers' goal - Conway intercepted Kyle Thacker's unwise reverse pass and fired home past Owen.
Two Giants goals in the opening two minutes of the final period killed the game off as a contest.
Slater Doggett was served up a tap-in by his team-mate Cooper little over a minute after the restart, before Soy powered the puck through Owen's legs just over 30 seconds later for a 4-1 scoreline.
Cooper then notched up his first goal of the evening on a five-on-three power play, with Conway tipping in a Jeff Baum shot for 6-1.
Cooper added the seventh, his second of the night, tipping in a Griffin Reinhart pass to complete the scoring.
With both the Sheffield Steelers and Cardiff Devils winning on Saturday night, the Giants kept pace in the race for the top spot in the Elite League.
Belfast now travel to Nottingham to face the Panthers on Sunday, while their two title rivals will meet in Sheffield.