Jeff Szwez scored a hat-trick as Belfast Giants moved back to the top of the Elite League with an emphatic 8-2 win over Edinburgh Capitals.
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It was the Jeffrey Szwez show in Belfast on Friday night as the dominant forward scored three times to lead the Giants into first place in the Elite League.
Despite a dominating overall performance for the Giants, it was actually the Edinburgh Capitals that scored first, when Simon Lambert opened the scoring five minutes into the second period much to the shock of the home town crowd.
That was thee wake up call the Giants needed, because three minutes later, Brandon Benedict tied the game at 1-1 with his 12th goal od the season.
Less then two minutes later, Szwez got his first of the night, and 14th of the season, finishing off a nifty passing play from Steve Thornton to make it 2-1.
The crowd were starting to see the Giants completely take over and any chances the Capitals got, Stephen Murphy was there to shut them down. Pat Bateman made it 3-1 at 34:37 with his 12th goal of the season, finishing off a nice feed from Evan Cheverie.
A somewhat questionable slashing call on Giants Captain Colin Shields gave the Capitals a chance to pull one back on the powerplay but a misplayed puck led to a turnover with Szwez picking up the puck, skating into the Capitals zone and letting go a cannon of a slapshot that netminder Cody Rudkowsky never even had a chance on.
That was a shorthanded tally for Szwez, his second goal of the night, his 15th on the season and a league leading 4th shorthanded goal. After two periods, the scoreline was 4-1 in favour of the Giants, and with 20 minutes to play, the Capitals could feel they were in for an even longer night.
The third period felt much like the second, with the Capitals scoring first followed by an onslaught of goals from the hometown Giants.
Jordan Steel scored for Edinburgh with his first goal of the season making it 4-2 before Kevin Phillips replied for Belfast with his first of the season as well, which he fired home top shelf on Rudkowsky to re-establish the 3 goal lead.
The Giants powerplay decided to get in on the action with back to back strikes with the man advantage courtesy of Colin Shields with his league leading 21st goal of the season and Szwez, who completed his hat-trick on the powerplay at 58:13 with his 16th goal of the year.
Tom Walsh added one more for the Giants to make the final scoreline 8-2.
Period Scores: 0-0, 4-1, 4-1
Penalty Mins: Bel 11 Edi 11
Powerplay: Bel 2/3 Edi - 0/3
Shots On: Stephen Murphy 22 - Cody Rudkowsky 35/Craig Holland 5
Referee: Michael Hicks
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