Champions Hockey League: Belfast Giants beaten again by HC Davos in Switzerland

Giants keeper Jackson Whistle was beaten four times in less than four minutes in the first period in Switzerland

Belfast Giants lost a third straight game in the Champions Hockey League as HC Davos earned a 5-1 home win.

The Giants made an encouraging start as Jackson Whistle made a couple of fine saves before Chad Butcher went close.

But Michael Fora put the Swiss side ahead on 13:19 and Enzo Corvi, Raphael Prassl, and Chris Egli added three more inside the next four minutes.

Ciaran Long replied for the Giants in the second period with Matej Stransky notching Davos' fifth goal.

Whistle was beaten from distance for Fora's opener and possibly could have done better to stop Prassl's goal from a relatively acute angle but was left exposed for Davos' other first-period strikes, with the Giants outshot 14-1 in the opening session, as only 12 seconds separated the goals from Prassl and Egli.

The Giants keeper was replaced by Peyton Jones at the start of the second period and the visitors' play did improve considerably as they had 10 attempts on target.

Good work by David Goodwin set up Long's reply on 26:26 and the Giants goalscorer soon had another great chance but saw his pointblank opportunity blocked by Davos keeper Gilles Senn.

Davos, who beat the Giants 6-3 in Belfast last Sunday, produced most of the pressure in the final period and Stransky restored their four-goal advantage after Jones had produced a number of fine saves.

Ben Lake had a chance to reduce Davos' lead once more but Senn made another fine save while Mark Cooper also went close for the Giants late on as the Swiss side maintained their winning record in this season's competition.

Once again, the Giants were unable to exploit their six powerplay opportunities in Friday's contest and they will hope for better in Sunday's next Champions League contest against Czech side HC Ocelari Trinec at the SSE Arena.