Belfast Giants miss out in Elite League Playoff Final showdown with Sheffield Steelers

​Following victory on Saturday over Cardiff Devils, the Stena Line-sponsored Giants went into the Nottingham showpiece with a confidence boost – but finished with only a Blake Speers goal on the board.

The Giants’ Daniel Tedesco’s early effort on target tested the reflexes of Matt Greenfield.

Daniel Cormier then descended on the Giants’ net, only to be denied by a big pad save from Jackson Whistle.

After Daniel Ciampini was penalised for slashing, the Giants created a number of chances to open the scoring, with efforts from David Goodwin, Mark Cooper and Tedesco.

The Steelers’ Kevin Tansey was served a two-minute penalty for hooking then the Giants’ Greg Printz was handed five-minutes for boarding.

The Steelers took advantage to break the deadlock with Ciampini and a second powerplay goal arrived within a minute off Mikki Juusola’s unassisted effort.

In the second period, Whistle was called upon to deny Brandon Whistle and Scott Allen plus a Travis Brown block proved crucial off Ciampini.

Allen was then called for roughing and with seven seconds left in the period, Speers blasted home on the powerplay for 2-1.

The Giants’ third-period push featured attempts without success for Speers and Will Cullen.

But the final’s final goal arrived with less than 60 seconds on the clock off Kevin Tansey’s empty-netter for a 3-1 defeat for the Belfast side.