Great game for the crowd of 6327 to enjoy.

Tightly fought throughout between two really good sides who well both be involved at the business end of the Elite League season.

It looked for a long time that Jarrod Gourley’s first period goal might be the only one.

However Giants coach Adam Keefe will be pleased with his sides third period resilience.

They never gave up and were rewarded with a big win.

Elijah Barriga missed all of last season through injury and he is showing early in this campaign what the Giants missed out on.

Two huge goals and rightly voted the man of the match.

Up to the equaliser the Devils had played a solid road game but they conceded a lot of the play to the Giants, especially in the second half of the game.

Those breakaway chances late in the second period they couldn’t score on, and move a couple of goals ahead, were crucial.

Ben Bowns is pulled for the extra attacker and Jordan Kawaguchi finds the empty net.

Surely that is the two points sealed for the Giants.

The game has turned on its head.

Kyle Osterberg has the puck on a string behind the net, Ben Bowns is holding the post but somehow Elijah Barriga at the side of the net gets enough of the puck to get it over the line.

Giants lead with 2 minutes to go

It was coming and finally the Giants beat Ben Bowns.

The Cardiff netminder spills a tight angle shot and the puck drops to Elijah Barriga on the doorstep and he prods it into the net.

Quite the ten minutes we have to look forward to

Image source, Press Eye

It’s pretty much one-way traffic as the Giants look for the equaliser but they are struggling to get traffic in front of Ben Bowns.

He’s seeing every Giants shot - going to have to be a good one to beat him.

11:35 to go

Will the Devils rue not taking any of those breakaway chances they had in the closing couple of minutes of the second period?

They may get a few more as the Giants continue to chase the game.

Still all to play for as the final twenty minutes gets underway.

Image source, Press Eye

Still just the one goal in it.

All to play for in the third and final period in Belfast.

Image source, Press Eye

The Giants ended up with 37 seconds of a 5-on-3 after a nasty check by Cole Sanford sent Gabe Bast hard into the boards.

The Giants created nothing and while they killed the Sanford penalty and in the remaining time in the period the Devils had three clear breakaways.

Tom McCollum saved twice and Scott Conway made the defensive play of the game so far as he sprawled to intercept a pass from Sanford.

After all that the Devils still lead with a period to go

Image source, Press Eye

The home crowd cheer as the Giants finally awarded a powerplay with goal scorer Jarrod Gourley heading to the box.

4:45 left in the second period

There’s a bit of nastiness creeping into the game.

Andrew MacWilliam has headed into the Devils locker room. Not sure what happened but he appeared to be holding his head.

A slash by Scott Conway earns a two minute penalty and the Giants are on the kill again.

Image source, Press Eye

The Giants are beginning to build a head of steam.

But they haven’t found a way past Ben Bowns who spreads the pads to save from GB team mate Ben Lake as the Giants forward falls to the ice.

12:22 remaining in the second period

Giants Tom McCollum won’t be happy with the goal he conceded but he just stoned Cole Sanford, denying the Devils forward a second goal.

Image source, Press Eye

The second period is underway.

Gabe Bast was called for the game’s first penalty late in the first period so the Giants have to kill 1:22 to begin with.

Image source, Press Eye

Jarrod Gourley's shot sneaks past Tom McCollum to give the Devils the lead at the end of the first period in Belfast.

Image source, Press Eye

Tough physical hockey game with the Devils leading by a goal.

The Giants have struggled to create chances from the prime scoring areas with efforts coming in from the perimeter that Ben Bowns has seen all the way.

Mark Cooper has come close a couple of times for the home side.

The Devils are playing an excellent road game. They haven’t created a lot either but they have been great defensively and have out-shot the Giants 6-5, but only 11 shots shows how well both sides are playing in their own zones.

Image source, Press Eye

A pulsating first few minutes to the game.

End-to-end with some huge hits and then from nothing the Devils take the lead.

A loose puck heading to the blueline is swept towards goal by Jarrod Gourley and into the net.

Giants respond by hitting the post.

Image source, Press Eye

Giants Tom McCollum and Devils Ben Bowns are the starting netminders.

Both sides missing a couple of players but so much talent on the ice.

First period underway in front of a sell-out crowd in Belfast.

It’s still very early in the season but that doesn’t matter when the Belfast Giants and Cardiff Devils face-off against each other.

The SSE Arena is sold-out for this clash of perennial title rivals.

Both sides have started the new campaign well, and meet for the first time in competitive action this season.

The Giants have won five of their six cup and league games so far, their only dropped point coming in a shootout loss in Sheffield.

The Devils have exactly the same start, but an OT loss to Manchester was their only dropped point.

Points taken off your rivals can be crucial come March so expect this to be a high-octane encounter.

Image source, BBC Sport