In the Elite League, history does repeat itself – the Belfast Giants were crowned champions for the fourth time in five seasons on Sunday [6 April] and could claim yet another historic treble by the time the month is done.
The Giants left it until the final day of the regular-season to reclaim the trophy (and a place in the Champions Hockey League), winning 4-3 in overtime over the Nottingham Panthers, while their title rivals fell by the same scoreline on the road against the Coventry Blaze.
Adam Keefe has always been the crucial piece of the puzzle at the SSE Arena – a legendary figure in Belfast, the Canadian laid the foundations for success last summer and the fruits of his labour are in full bloom.
Belfast Giants win Title: Adam Keefe and Zach Galambos, Belfast Giants (Image: William Cherry)
Keefe stuck with Elijiah Barriga (who missed the whole of last season through injury) and was rewarded with 36 points in 47 games. At the bottom of the roster, Cameron Pound chipped in with nine points in 50 games, despite averaging less than eight minutes per appearance.
The Giants were neither faultless or dominant – but they never panicked in moments of adversity or allowed a rot to set in.
They lost twice in-a-row on multiple occasions – including back-to-back 6-4 and 5-1 defeats to the Coventry Blaze and Nottingham in late October – but never fell to three consecutive regulation-time defeats and pulled out big wins when it mattered the most.
The Giants entered the final weekend of the season with a simple objective – outscore the Sheffield Steelers, who started the round one point off the summit.
Belfast took four points from four – beating the third-place Panthers home and away – to make Sheffield’s results somewhat of an irrelevance.
Title-winning Belfast Giants covet historic treble –
But, with the playoffs next on the schedule, those outcomes do matter. And the Steelers crumbled when the heat was turned up on Sunday.
The Blaze scored twice within three minutes of puck drop to leave Aaron Fox, his roster, and a jam-packed away section stunned.
While the Steelers fought back to level the score and then take the lead before the half-hour mark, they let it slip two minutes later and became the latest team (after the 2018-19 Cardiff Devils) to lose the title on the final day of the season at the Skydome Arena.
Chase Gresock scored the clincher with just over three minutes left on the clock, beating Matt Greenfield clean from below the face-off circle. (It was a dismal night for Greenfield, who made 22 saves on 26 shots for a leaky .846 save percentage.)
The 𝗗𝗘𝗖𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗩𝗘 moment
pic.twitter.com/jijoAL2KnS
— X – Coventry Blaze
(@covblazehockey) April 6, 2025
Meanwhile, in Nottingham, Belfast’s stars came in clutch.
Scott Conway and Mark Cooper both scored, while Ben Lake, Zak Galambos, and Jordan Kawaguchi combined for ten blocks. Mike Lee scored twice and Jackson Whistle did just enough to backstop his team to the win.
If the playoff final is contested by the teams that finished first and second in the regular-season standings, only one of them enters the postseason on a high, having kept their nerve in moments of jeopardy down the stretch.
They’d be my pick.
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