Challenge Cup: Gilbert hits overtime winner as Giants edge Stars

Darik Angeli sends in a shot against the Stars in Saturday night's encounter

David Gilbert was the overtime hero for Belfast Giants as he scored the sudden-death winner to give the hosts a 5-4 win over the Dundee Stars.

In an entertaining encounter the Giants came from behind three times before eventually prevailing.

It was the second Challenge Cup home game in a row that they were taken to extra time.

It was Gilbert's second goal of the night with the others coming from Scott Conway, Ciaran Long and Mark Cooper.

The two sides will battle it out again on Sunday in Dundee where another win for Adam Keefe's side would secure a place in the knockout stages of the competition.

The Giants had already hit a pair of posts through Darik Angeli and Gilbert before they took the lead. Gabe Bast lifted the puck into the neutral zone where Conway picked it up between two Dundee defencemen, drove towards the net and tucked it past netminder Anton Svensson,

However, against the run of play the visitors capitalised on a defensive turnover behind the Giants net to equalise. Philippe Sanche stole the puck and found Romans Semjonovs all alone in front and his one-timer beat Peyton Jones.

Dundee continued to play with confidence and took the lead 18 seconds into the second period with Sanche pouncing on a rebound.

Long's toe-drag and laser-like wrist shot into the top corner tied the game at 2-2 just before the halfway mark and it looked like the momentum had turned in Belfast's favour after their penalty killers and Jones repelled a full two minutes of a two-man advantage for the Stars.

But they couldn't escape when Dundee were awarded a penalty shot and Elijah Barriga lofted the puck over Jones.

The Giants ramped up the intensity at the beginning of the final period and were rewarded with the game tying goal, assisted by the silky puck handling skills of Will Cullen who found Gilbert and he applied the finish.

The game was wide open and end-to-end and the two sides traded goals within seconds of each other. Sanche intercepted a Chad Butcher pass and went in alone and beat Jones to put the Stars ahead for the third time.

However, on the very next shift Cooper started and finished the move that tied the game up once more.

In the three-on-three overtime it was Bast who circled the Dundee net, drawing all three Stars players to him and allowing Gilbert space to place the puck high over the glove of Svensson to give the Giants another dramatic victory.