Nottingham Panthers are tamed as Belfast Giants run riot

Four middle period goals did the damage for the home side as they reduced the deficit on the first placed Panthers to four points thanks to a 6-1 win.

Yesterday’s result gave the Giants back-to-back weekends with 100% records following Saturday’s 4-3 win in Glasgow.

Tyler Beskorowany turned away 30 shots with six different goalscorers,

Kendall McFaull, Blair Riley, Francis Beauvillier, Josh Roach, Hunter Bishop and Lewis Hook, scoring the all important goals.

Missing for the Belfast side were Colin Shields, Pat Dwyer, Matt Towe, Andrew Dickson and Jim Vandermeer.

Alex Guptill opened the scoring for the visitors when he took full advantage of a fortunate bounce off a Giants skate to put his side in front at 7:50, assisted by Luke Pither.

Kendall McFall equalised at 24:16, finishing well after a nice give-and-go with Blair Riley.

Riley grabbed a goal of his own only 79 seconds later, redirecting Guillaume Gelinas’ shot past Michael Garnett on the powerplay.

Francis Beauvillier gave the Giants a two goal lead at 31:30 after a nice pass from Darcy Murphy behind the net.

Josh Roach made it four goals in the middle period when Jonathan Ferland picked out the defenceman at the back post at 34:35.

Hunter Bishop and Kyle Baun teamed up well to extend the Giants lead to four at 45:47.

The forwards skated the puck into the Panthers zone before Baun dished the puck to Bishop whose fierce wrist shot flew into the Nottingham net.

Lewis Hook rounded off the scoring when he netted for the hosts at 57:07, assisted by David Rutherford.

The Giants will travel to England next weekend for three away games. Friday and Saturday the Giants take on the Milton Keynes Lightning before facing the Guildford Flames on Sunday.

Next at home for the Giants is the Continental Cup Semi-Final on November 15-17.