The LBM Belfast Giants defeated the Newcastle Vipers 6-1 on Saturday night at the Odyssey Arena but it wasn’t enough to set up a title decider against Coventry on Sunday as a victory for the Blaze in Edinburgh wrapped up the Elite League.
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In their last home game of the regular season Jeffrey Szwez got the Giants on the board when he netted a power play goal with only 5:49 on the clock on a feed from Michael Jacobsen.
With Colin Shields and Pat Bateman credited with the assists Szwez then doubled both his and the Giants tallies when he netted again at 23:34 giving the Giants a 2-0 lead going into the intermission.
The second period got off to an explosive opening, however it took until 30:46 when George Awada added the Giants third rounding off a breakout play involving Graeme Walton and Tom Walsh.
With the Giants on the power play Ben Campbell latched on to a broken play and had a breakaway on Stephen Murphy roofing the puck on his backhand over Murphy's blocker bringing to an end Murff's two game shutout streak.
Less than two minutes later Szwez restored the Giants lead and rounded off his hat trick again with the assists going to Colin Shields & Pat Bateman giving the Giants a 4-1 lead going into the period break.
With the puck dropped for the third period Szwez and Ryan Jorde dropped the gloves and exchanged blows.
The scrap energised the crowd and it was the Giants who capitalised on the momentum scoring two quick goals to kill off any hopes of a Vipers comeback.
Craig Peacock padded the lead when he netted the teams fifth on an assist from Evan Cheverie at 41:17, before Peacock returned the favour less than a minute later finding Cheverie alone in the slot to round off the scoring and a convincing 6-1 win.
Sunday's game against Coventry is a 6pm face off.
(*Picture: Michael Cooper)
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