GAME RECAP: Belfast Giants 4 Glasgow Clan 1

GAME RECAP

Glasgow Clan couldn’t make it two out of two in their festive meetings with Belfast Giants as they were defeated 4-1 at the SSE Arena.

All four goals from the Giants in the second period made all the difference as they bounced back from Boxing Day’s 5-1 loss in Glasgow.

The first period was a closely fought affair as both teams played each other to a stalemate, although the Giants had more than double the shots on goal, eclipsing Clan’s six with 13 of their own.

Nick Prkusic and Giants’ Ciaran Long had an exchange of blows, as both men took to their respective penalty boxes for roughing.

Mike Lee hit the crossbar with the Giants’ best opportunity of the opening period, but neither side could take an advantage in the scoring.

That all changed in the second period – just 39 seconds after the restart in fact – when Pierre Olivier Morin buried his chance past Lucas Brine to break the deadlock.

Tyson McLellan was denied by an excellent Tom McCollum save for the Giants shortly after, but it wasn’t long before Belfast doubled their lead.

McCollum’s pass down the centre found to Bobo Carpenter, who teed up Jordan Kawaguchi and he duly executed the finish past Brine.

Before Clan knew it, they were three down inside 27 minutes as JJ Piccinich made the most of his chance, which began from a face off.

Then Ben Lake prodded home a fourth to really put the scoreline in Belfast’s favour, with Jeff Baum playing a big part in the build-up.

Clan regrouped for the third period, knowing it would be a tall order to get something from the game.

They finally hit back with a cracker of a powerplay goal from Simon Després – his third in three games – to reduce the arrears by one with 10 minutes to go.

However, it was as much as Glasgow could muster in the end as the post-Christmas points were ultimately shared between the teams.

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PHOTOS

by Belfast Giants