BELFAST GIANTS 5 TRADE-MART DUNDEE STARS 2
The Trade-Mart Dundee Stars were beaten 5-2 by Belfast Giants on Saturday night in the first leg of the Elite League Playoffs Quarter-Finals in Northern Ireland.
By Kris Smith
The home side took an early lead in the sixth minute as Jordan Kawaguchi tapped home the rebound from Robert Carpenter’s saved effort, after Jarrett Fiske had denied the first attempt but was unable to stop the Giants forward from sliding home the rebound.
Belfast hen put the Stars under heavy pressure for a few minutes as they looked to double their lead but the Taysiders managed to fend off further Giants attacks before settling back down.
Dundee then found an equaliser on 15 minutes as defenseman, Kyle Pouncy saw his first shot blocked but the puck then bounced back to the Canadian and he buried his second effort into the roof of Jackson Whistle’s net.
The two teams were still tied at 1-1 to start the second period and the home team would take the lead again, this time Mike Lee fired home the rebound from David Goodwin’s low shot off the leg pads of Fiske, inside 29 minutes.
Then just two minutes later, the Giants then increased their lead to 3-1 as Ben Lake’s attempted pass out from behind the Dundee goal took a deflection off of Stars captain, Drydn Dow’s stick before bouncing off the back of Fiske and into the net.
Marc LeFebvre’s men needed a big third period to keep the tie close ahead of tomorrow’s second leg in Dundee but just five minutes into the third session, the Giants capitalised on their first powerplay of the night as Craig Garrigan sat for a hooking foul.
Lee would net his second of the night as he stepped into Kawaguchi’s drop pass and hit a first-time effort into the top corner of the Dundee goal, making it 4-1 to Adam Keefe’s side.
After the Stars failed to score on their second powerplay of the game, the Giants continued to make their chances count as Grant Mismash redirected the puck past Fiske from point blank range, for Belfast’s fifth goal in the 57th minute.
However, there were disgruntled appeals from the Stars bench as they felt Spencer Naas had been fouled in the build-up to the goal as Mark Cooper and Lake roughed up the Dundee’s star player in the corner as play went on.
No penalty was called at the time and following a scrum after the Giants scored, the referees decided to hand out roughing penalties to Naas and Lake, as well as a cross-checking minor to Cooper but they still awarded Belfast the goal.
After many appeals from Dundee, the match restarted with the visitors on the powerplay but they now trailed 5-1.
Although, the Stars would convert on their man advantage as Cole MacDonald shot past Whistle from the slot to reduce the lead back down to three goals, with less than two minutes remaining in the game.
There would be another scrum after a goal as Dundee’s Kameron Kielly came together with a few Belfast Giants and he would end up going toe-to-toe with Scott Conway in a short bout that ended with both players having their match cut short for fighting inside the final five minutes of regulation.
The match restarted with Belfast on a powerplay as Kielly was given an additional cross-checking minor penalty for starting the scrum but Dundee would kill the shortened man advantage and return home with a three-goal deficit to overturn in 60 minutes.
Man of the Match
Dundee: #83 Ben O’Conor
Belfast: #23 Mike Lee
Goals
1st:
1-0 Jordan Kawaguchi (Robert Carpenter, Bo Hanson) 05:11
1-1 Kyle Pouncy (Spencer Naas, Philippe Sanche) 14:54
2nd:
2-1 Mike Lee (Scott Conway, David Goodwin) 28:42
3-1 Ben Lake (Mark Cooper, Zak Galambos) 30:50
3rd:
4-1 Mike Lee (Jordan Kawaguchi, Grant Mismash) 45:27 PPG
5-1 Grant Mismash (Jeff Baum, Mark Cooper) 56:46
5-2 Cole MacDonald (Keanu Yamamoto, Ben O’Connor) 58:15 PPG
All images: William Cherry/Presseye.
