REPORT: Belfast Giants 5 Glasgow Clan 0

Report by Sam Scouller; photos by William Cherry/Press Eye

Aspray Glasgow West sponsored Glasgow Clan experienced another difficult night as Belfast Giants ran out 5-0 winners at the SSE Arena.

With three games to go, Clan remain level on points with eighth place Coventry Blaze, who play Guildford Flames on Sunday as the play-off race took another twist.

Belfast got off to a rapid start as Will Cullen lobbed the puck through the zones to Ara Nazarian who slammed the puck into the net to put the Giants in front after just 59 seconds.

Bryce Reddick almost levelled the scoring for the Clan when he rifled a shot from between the hash marks and forced an impressive save through traffic from Jackson Whistle.

Mike Pelech also came close to bagging a Clan equaliser with a shot from the bottom of the circle later in the period, but it was kept out by the crossbar.

Ciaran Long caused some minor chaos in the Glasgow crease at the end of the period as he fired multiple shots on visiting goalie Antti Karjalainen’s net, but he couldn’t get the puck over the line.

In the second period, Bobby McIntyre doubled Belfast’s lead with a penalty shot after the officials deemed that Charlie Combs had hooked him on his previous shot.

Just 27 seconds later, the Giants were awarded another penalty shot after Gregg Printz was forced out of possession in the crease by Ryan Harrison but he couldn’t deliver on the shot.

Long grabbed a third goal for the hosts shortly after though as he charged up the right wall and drove in on Karjalainen before slotting it into the roof of the net.

Whistle had a strong performance in the Belfast net throughout the second period as he kept out multiple shots from a Clan powerplay before making an unbelievable double stop on Dyson Stevenson.

Darien Craighead was unfairly held by Jeff Baum as he broke away from the Giants’ defence which forced the officials to award the Clan the third penalty shot of the game. Craighead’s attempt was impressively held off by Whistle though.

McIntyre bagged his second goal of the game on the powerplay as he ripped a first time shot from the top of the circle which sailed past Karjalainen to give Belfast a four-goal lead.

David Goodwin then sunk the dagger on the game as he grabbed a fifth Giants goal with a backhanded effort in the final two minutes as the hosts claimed all the points on the night.

Just before the final buzzer, Harrison got tangled up with Belfast’s Ben Lake which saw the Clan’s #22 handed a game penalty for spearing.

Stevenson was also ejected for abuse of officials to cap off a miserable night for the Clan.