The Devils gave up the tying goal with 5 seconds left to play then lost in a shootout on Sunday Night.
It wasn’t meant to go this way after leading the entire third period, but the Giants were the ones skating away with the extra point on Sunday Night.An early power play saw the visitors open the scoring with a scrambling puck eventually batted in by Sebastien Sylvestre at 2:36. The Devils evened the score with a powerplay goal of their own at 5:56 with Layne Ulmer blasting home a nifty passing play from Joey Martin and Paul Crowder to tie the game at 1-1.
Belfast were back in the penalty box moments later and a quick transition saw Andrew Hotham drop the puck to Jake Morissette who found Patrick Asselin wide open for the go-ahead goal, again on the powerplay at 8:01.
Right off the next face-off the Giants’ John Kurtz and Justin Faryna dropped the gloves for an impressive scrap that had both teams fired up and got both players 5 minutes for fighting. The Giants evened the scoreline at 10:48 when Ryan Martinelli got the final touch on a rebound off of Ben Bowns to make it 2-2, which is how the score remained for the rest of the first period.
The only goal of the second period came from Joey Martin with the Devils on a 5 on 3 powerplay. Martin somehow snuck the puck through the legs of Jackson Whistle at 30:44 to put the homeside up 3-2.
The third period saw the two teams trade powerplay chances, but neither could convert. The Giants pulled their goaltender with over a minute to play and with only 5 seconds remaining on the clock, they tied the game when Sebastien Sylvestre threw the puck towards the net and it deflected off of a Devils’ defender to surprise Bowns and tie the game at 3-3.
Overtime couldn’t decide this one, and neither could the first 3 shooters for either team. Eventually David Rutherford scored on Bowns to give Belfast the win and the extra point.
Photo: Dave Williams
