Belfast Giants win marred as Coventry Blaze coach caught up in row with fan

An altercation that saw Blaze head coach Danny Stewart call over a fan from the stands and engage in a furious exchange of words led to Blaze players flooding the tunnel in anger as tempers flared once the game was over.

Eventually the fan was ejected from the arena, but it was a feisty end to what had already been an ill-tempered game on the ice on an emotional night at the SSE Arena.

That the visitors even played after the death of their assistant coach, Dayle Keen, on Monday was a credit to the organisation and an impeccably observed minute’s silence and minute’s applause preceded the showdown.

And on the ice the Giants continued their mini-resurgence as they made it four straight wins on home ice and improved to 24-14-4 on the season, keeping up their bid for second place in the Elite League.

Former NHL centreman Speers grabbed his first ever strength goal since joining the Giants in January as part of a three-goal third period to lead them to a comfortable scoreline, while after scoring twice in their midweek victory over the Dundee Stars, Matt McLeod grabbed his third goal in his last two games.

Daniel Tedesco added his eighth goal in his last nine for what proved to be the game-winner just two minutes after McLeod bringing things level after Mitch Cook had put the Blaze ahead, with Ben Lake and Kohei Sato adding on in the third period to give the Giants their second win in three days.

They were led by a stellar performance from netminder Jackson Whistle, who steered away 24 of the 25 shots he faced and could do little about Cook’s opener 3:38 into the second period.

The Giants will now look to try and continue that momentum in Saturday evening’s rematch with the Blaze in the second part of the double-header on home ice at the SSE Arena.

After a first period that neither side will particularly want to remember, Cook had forged the visitors ahead when he battled in front to get to the rebound of Ian McNulty’s shot first and prod it into the net, but the Giants then managed to turn things around quickly in the space of two minutes.

McLeod continued his hot streak with the first of those Giants goals at 27:03, going on the odd-man rush with Sato and finishing off the Japanese centreman’s saucer pass for his 12th goal of the campaign so far before Tedesco plucked a puck out of the air and fired home on the backhand at 29:08 for the game-winner and his 18th of the campaign.

Carter Allen hit the crossbar right at the end of the second period for the Blaze but that would be as good as it got for them from there on, Speers then putting daylight between the teams when he tipped in Will Cullen’s shot at 43:57 and then Lake picking the top corner with a superb shot off Jacob Friend’s drop pass at 46:21.

Sato finished it off at 54:19 with another stunning top corner finish after a kind bounce off the glass, before things boiled over at the final buzzer in what was a disappointing end to a fine night for the Giants.

A feisty rematch may well be in store on Saturday evening.