Belfast Giants stay on track to make Continental Cup Final

Blair Riley scored the game winning goal in the middle period, his second of the game, to make it two wins in as many nights for the Giants following Thursday’s win vs Medvescak Zagreb.

The Giants now face GKS Katowice today, face-off 7pm at The SSE Arena, knowing a win will secure Belfast’s place in the Continental Cup Final in January.

Tyler Beskorowany started in the Belfast net with Colin Shields, Jonathan Ferland, Matt Towe, Andrew Dickson and Guillaume Gelinas missing for the Giants. The Giants win sees the Belfast side move into first place outright of the Semi-Final group following Medvescak Zagreb’s 3-2 victory over GKS Katowice of Poland earlier on Friday.

Pat Dwyer got the Giants off to the ideal start - squeezing the puck past Thomas Tragust in the Ritten net at 8:20, assisted by Curtis Leonard.

The Italian’s hit back with Simon Kostner equalising at 10:03, assisted by Andreas Lutz, before Alex Frei gave Ritten the lead 34 seconds later, assisted by Daniel Tudin.

Blair Riley pulled the Giants level at the end of the period when netminder Tragust spilled Darcy Murphy’s shot and the Captain slotted home at 18:49.

Riley doubled his tally on the night 92 seconds into the middle period to edge the hosts in front, assisted by Darcy Murphy and David Rutherford.

The Giants extended their lead to two at 33:09 when Francis Beauvillier fired home from a tight angle, assisted by Jim Vandermeer.

The Giants added a fifth as they fired home at 45:01, assisted by David Rutherford and Blair Riley.

Jonathan Boxill rounded off the scoring at 51:30, assisted by Player of the Game Darcy Murphy - wh had an outstanding game.