Belfast Giants ‘heartbroken’ after Champions League overtime defeat

Giants forward Ryan Smith scores against KalPa

Belfast Giants coach Adam Keefe described the locker room as ‘heartbroken’ after his side came so close to causing a huge upset in the Champions Hockey League.

The Elite League champions were only 63 seconds away from beating Finnish title holders KalPa when the visitors tied the score at 2-2 before going on to win the game 3-2 in overtime.

The Giants take a point from the opening game but will have to recover from their disappointment quickly with another Finnish side, Ilves Tampere, the opposition on Saturday night.

“I’ve said to the players, don’t get used to this feeling. They’re heartbroken, obviously everyone wanted to pull out that last minute there,” said Keefe.

“Everyone on the bench played their part in the game and as I say, I’m proud of them, but at the same time we need to get better.

“We need to manage the game better so there are a lot of good things to come from the game but plenty to learn from it as well ahead of Saturday.”

Adam Keefe shouting instructions on the Giants bench

Giants never trailed…until the very end

The Giants took the lead against their higher ranked opponents after only 53 seconds when Patrick Grasso scored from a tight angle.

The pace of the game was a level or two higher than the Elite League and it wasn’t long before the Finnish side exerted pressure on the Giants net and equalised through Jaakko Rissanen.

However once they were up to speed the Giants dominated the second period and deservedly took the lead when Ryan Smith scored on the powerplay.

At the other end Alexis Gravel was making some huge saves to preserve the lead helped by a smothering Giants defence was kept KalPa at bay until just 63 seconds from the end of the regulation.

With their netminder pulled for an extra attacker the Giants couldn’t hold back the wave after wave of attacks.

A fortuitous rebound found Juuso Mäenpää who tied the game.

Patrick Curry scored the overtime winner as the Finnish side celebrated a ‘snatch and grab’ win.

“The second period in particular we had a lot of chances that we didn’t capitalise on,” added Keefe.

“In the third period we got fatigued and we needed to make a few small plays to give us time in the offensive zone to allow us to find some composure and time to think.

“We weren’t able to do that and ultimately they probably deserved that game tying goal the way they were coming at us in waves.

“That’s frustrating to take but the guys put in a great effort from Alexis all the way out and that’s great to see from our group.

“It‘s a good one to build on, but also frustrating that we didn’t get the three points.”