Belfast Giants v Fife Flyers - Elite League Ice Hockey

Summary

Belfast Giants 7-1 Fife Flyers (19:00 GMT)
Mark Cooper's early opener cancelled out by Massimo Carozza
JJ Piccinich and PO Morin see Giants lead 3-1 after first period
Gabe Bast and Jordan Kawaguchi's double put hosts in command in second period
Scott Conway gets on scoresheet in third before Kawaguchi completes hat-trick

Live Reporting

Nigel Ringland

Giants move ten points clear at top of Elite Leaguepublished at 21:13 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February
Belfast Giants 8-1 Fife Flyers
The was predictable.
All of Fife’s on and off ice problems coming to fruition and you can’t take on the Giants with only 8 forwards. Brave effort but it is what it is.
Two points for the Giants moves them ten clear of Sheffield heading into the last regular season meeting between the two sides on Sunday.
The Steelers have a couple of games in hand but should the Giants win it would be an enormous mountain for the defending champions to climb.
Then it’s a doubleheader at home with Cardiff next Friday and Saturday.
The Giants know that they could take an enormous step towards the title over the next 8 days.
GOAL! Hat-trick for Kawaguchipublished at 21:04 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February
Belfast Giants 8-1 Fife Flyers
The Giants powerplay had failed to click in the game until…
Jordan Kawaguchi scored - his hat-trick and the Giants eighth
GOAL! Conway makes it sevenpublished at 20:44 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February
Belfast Giants 7-1 Fife Flyers
It took 46 seconds after the restart for the Giants to score their seventh goal with Scott Conway getting on the scoresheet
Third period is off and runningpublished at 20:41 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February
Belfast Giants 6-1 Fife Flyers
The Giants are twenty minutes away from a 10 point lead at the top of the Elite League.
They will have played two games more than their title challengers but that would be a healthy position to be in with 16 games left
Image source, Press Eye
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Second period action
Giants on route to two pointspublished at 20:26 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February
Belfast Giants 6-1 Fife Flyers
Three quick goals and then relax is how the Giants played that period.
It has to be said that in Fife a few weeks ago the Giants were 5-1 up in the third period and the Flyers came all the way back to force overtime.
I’m not seeing that happening again but worth mentioning
Image source, Press Eye
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Second period action between the Giants and Flyers
GOAL! Kawaguchi at the doublepublished at 20:01 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February
Belfast Giants 6-1 Fife Flyers
Jordan Kawaguchi wasted no time in grabbing his second goal of the game inside a couple of minutes with a very classy finish.
Giants showing little mercy here…
Image source, Press Eye
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Giants sclebrate the sixth goal from Jordan Kawaguchi
GOAL! Kawaguchi nets a fifth for Giantspublished at 19:57 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February
Belfast Giants 5-1 Fife Flyers
And before the fourth goal can be announced on the ice the Giants have a fifth thanks to Jordan Kawaguchi.
Image source, Press Eye
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Jordan Kawaguchi after scoring the Giants fifth goal
GOAL! Bast with the fourth goal for Giantspublished at 19:54 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February
Belfast Giants 4-1 Fife Flyers
Gabe Bast from between the hash marks gets a shot away that Shane Owen gets a lot of his pads behind but can’t keep it out of his net.
Only 23 seconds gone in the second period
Image source, Press Eye
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Gabe Bast celebrates scoring fourth goal
Puck dropped on second periodpublished at 19:52 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February
Belfast Giants 3-1 Fife Flyers
The game is back underway.
Can Fife mount a comeback or will the Giants pull away to another important two points?
Image source, Press Eye
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Giants Ciaran Long in first period action
Giants up by two after first periodpublished at 19:34 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February
Belfast Giants 3-1 Fife Flyers
Giants ahead and apart from the poor goal they conceded, it’s looked pretty comfortable.
Fife not giving up by any means
Image source, Press Eye
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First period action from Belfast
GOAL! Morin adds to Giants leadpublished at 19:29 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February
Belfast Giants 3-1 Fife Flyers
PO Morin tucks the puck away after a broken play saw it end up on his stick
Image source, Press Eye
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PO Morin after scoring Giants third goal
GOAL! Piccinich with a super solo effortpublished at 19:19 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February
Belfast Giants 2-1 Fife Flyers
JJ Piccinich goes coast-to-coast with a beautiful solo effort and the Giants are on front again in a game that both sides are neglecting defence
Image source, Press Eye
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JJ Piccinich scores for Belfast
GOAL! Flyers tie the scorepublished at 19:10 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February
Belfast Giants 1-1 Fife Flyers
Giants netminder Tom McCollum won’t want to see this one on replay.
Shot from Massimo Carozza goes though the pads and trickles in.
GOAL! Giants with early leadpublished at 19:05 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February
Belfast Giants 1-0 Fife Flyers
1.23 into the game and the Giants are in front thanks to captain Mark Cooper
Image source, Press Eye
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Mark Cooper after giving the Giants the lead
First period underway…published at 19:02 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February
Belfast Giants 0-0 Fife Flyers
The Giants start Tom McCollum between the pipes tonight and he’s faced by Shane Owen for the Flyers.
The Giants also ‘resting’ Grant Mismash, Bobo Carpenter and Karl Bourdrais with Kyle Osterberg and Zak Galambos in the line up.
Off we go…
It’s Valentine’s Day Hockey in Belfastpublished at 18:51 Greenwich Mean Time 14 February
Belfast Giants v Fife Flyers (19:00 GMT)
It appears a lot of people are spending date night at the Giants this evening as the hometown team take on the Fife Flyers in the Elite Legaue.
The hosts have already picked up a win this week, a 3-0 victory over Nottingham Panthers in the Challenge Cup semi-final first leg, and are eight points clear at the top of the table.
They've lost just three of their past 15 games in all competitions.
The Flyers haven't won in six games and are 17 points adrift at the foot of the table.
Fife join Coventry and Sheffield as the only teams however to have won in Belfast this season, having picked up a Challenge Cup group stage win.
Image source, BBC Sport
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Belfast Giants v Fife Flyers (19:00 GMT)