REPORT: Belfast Giants 5 Glasgow Clan 2

by Sam Scouller; photos by William Cherry/Press Eye

It was a tough night for Glasgow Clan, sponsored by Aspray Glasgow West, couldn’t make it a four-point weekend as they fell to Belfast Giants in the Challenge Cup.

Darien Craighead had an early chance on net when he sliced the puck on the bounce, but Jackson Whistle was quick to stop it.

Jake Kielly then pulled off a fantastic save on Ara Nazarian after he was on the end of a perfect saucer pass which saw him through on a breakaway.

There was chaos later in the period when Belfast’s netminder made a late lunge out of his crease which saw him collide with Mike Pelech.

It got a little feisty when Charlie Curti then dropped the gloves with Pelech which saw them both receive sizeable penalties.

While this went on, Giants had to turn to Tyler Beskorowany to replace Whistle, who was unable to continue.

Gary Haden found himself wide open near the end of the first after he got on the end of a stray pass from the Belfast defence, but couldn’t beat the Belfast goalie.

Kielly continued his good form into the second period, making a strong blocker save on Quinn Preston before denying a Ben Lake slapshot with his skate blade.

However, the home side took the lead shortly after as Mark Cooper got a tip on Lake’s effort to take it past Clan’s netminder.

Ryan Harrison had a huge chance to level the scoring for the visitors when he broke in on net all alone, but he couldn’t steer the puck over the line.

Greg Printz doubled the Giants’ lead with a shot from just outside the crease which snuck through Kielly’s pads and rolled into the net.

The Clan went on a five-on-three powerplay in the final minute of the period and scored through Dyson Stevenson, but after review it was deemed the puck crossed the line after the buzzer.

Glasgow weren’t out of it though, halvin Belfast’s lead early in the third period through a Jake Bolton powerplay goal.

Kielly continued to be tested in the Clan net as he was forced to make a dart across his line to stop a rapid-fire shot from Mark Cooper.

But Giants grabbed two goals in quick succession later in the third as Ciaran Long then Ben Lake grabbed a goal each in the space of five minutes.

Phillipe Sanche got Clan’s second the game and his second of the weekend, but not before Johnny Curran wrapped things up with an empty net goal to round the game off.