GIANTS SCORE 4 IN FINAL PERIOD TO BEAT DEVILS

The Devils were back in pre-season action against the Belfast Giants on Saturday night.  With Team GB preparing for the Olympic Qualifiers, the Devils were missing Brett Perlini, Mark Richardson, Evan Mosey and Ben Bowns.  They were also missing Joey Martin who picked up an injury the night before. Young prospects Joe Tomalin, Bayley Harewood and Jacob White-Sey were all in the line-up.  Mac Carruth got the start for the second night in a row for the Devils with Tyler de la Bertouche backing him up.  

Hunter Shinkaruk continued his pre-season scoring streak with the only goal of the first period.  Shinkaruk was set up by a nice pass from Harewood and he beat Tom McCollum with a low snapshot to make it 1-0 at 14:49. The Giants had the edge on shots with Carruth stopping all 9 shots he faced compared to the 4 shots on the Giants goal. 

Early in the second period a scuffle between Riley Brandt and Bobo Carpenter ended with Brandt sitting for a roughing call. The Devils killed the penalty, but Andrew MacWilliam was called for slashing just as the first penalty expired.  The Devils managed to kill the second penalty as well but were on their back foot for the next few minutes.

The Giants pressure eventually paid off with the tying goal set up by JJ Piccinich and batted in by Mac Stewart on his backhand at 34:31 to make it 1-1.  The period ended with some fisticuffs between Tyler Busch and Ciaran Long who each sat 5 minutes for fighting with just under two minutes to play.  As the buzzer sounded there was a massive scrum behind the Devils’ goal but when the referees sorted it out, only Cody Donaghey was called for roughing, which meant the Giants would open the third period with a powerplay. 

On the ensuing powerplay, the Giants took the 2-1 lead through Bobo Carpenter set up by Mark Cooper at 41:18.  Just over two minutes later, Belfast made it 3-1 when Jordan Kawaguchi’s pass landed perfectly on the stick of Pierre-Olivier Morin for an easy back door tap in at 43:24. 

Two more quick goals, first from Ciaran Long at 52:06 then Elijah Barriga less than a minute later gave the Giants a 5-1 lead, which is how the game finished.  

Photos courtesy of William Cherry