Boucher nets brace on Giants winning road trip

The win made it two out of two for the Giants who on the previous night knocked six goals by the Dundee Stars in their opening game of the season with 6-3 success. Both matches were in the Challenge Cup.

The opening period at the Fife Ice Arena began somewhat quietly and while the Giants dominated early on, it was the Scottish side who took their scoring chances.

At 15.26 the Giants’s Kevin Raine was handed a two minute penalty after hooking American James Anderson.

The Giants held out throughout the Flyers’s powerplay and Jackson Whistle, who was between the posts for Belfast, pulled off a superb save with 13 seconds left on the penalty.

But just after the Giants had killed the penalty they conceded the game’s first goal when Greg Chase scored for the Flyers at 18.24.

The Flyers began the second period in buoyant form. Then completely against the run of play Giants claimed their equaliser at 25.38 from Jordan Boucher who was assisted by Sam Ruopp.

Fife’s Richard Krogh was called for too many men on the ice at 34.32 to hand the Giants a powerplay.

And they duly capitalised when Slater Doggett put Belfast ahead at 36.15 with a strike following an assistfrom Tyler Soy.

The Giants then went two ahead thanks for a goal from David Goodwin at 39.06 with assists from Scott Conway and J J Piccinich.

The Giants quickly added to their tally in the third period. Scott Conway pinched a powerplay goal at 48.59 to give the Giants their fourth.

Boucher added his second of the night, and the Giants fifth, at 51.17 with an assist from Ciaran Long.

Giants head coach Adam Keefe spoke of his delight of being back with competitive hockey.

He said: “All things considered I am very happy with the win in our first game. The positive news is that we know that we can play a lot better as well.

“I thought they gave us a great test, they came out extremely fast and physical. Obviously for our first game it was a real welcome back to real hockey.”