Ice Hockey: NOT GR-EIGHT

THE Belfast Giants failed to kill off the Coventry curse last night despite out-shooting the Blaze 56-33 in an entertaining encounter to bring the regular season at the Odyssey to a close.

Rob Stewart's side have been unable to defeat last season's British National League Champions in each of the eight meetings between the sides, a statistic that has cost the Giants third place in the Elite League title race.

The shot-count reflected the play and had the Giants taken their chances they would have had the game won long before the final hooter.

Stewart said: "We outplayed them again and we don't usually have a problem putting the puck away against any other team.

"We were in their zone quite a bit and even though they were holding our guys quite a lot we still managed the get shots in.

"It is a game we should have won, there was a great effort out there and a solid performance from the whole team. If we had taken our chances we could have won by a big score."

The bumper crowd could have been forgiven for thinking that the Play-offs had started early, such was the free flowing play and the all out attack by both sides early on.

Coventry's Jody Lehman was by far the busier of the two goaltenders, although Colin Ryder was called upon at the other end to keep the scoreline blank.

Lehman could do little about the goal that broke the deadlock though, two minutes from the end of the first period.

Giants captain Jason Ruff was credited with the goal but it appeared that Lehman's was the final touch after the Giants captain had shot against the post.

The Giants' first period dominance was reflected in a shot-count of 24-10 and they doubled their lead five minutes into the second period when Curtis Bowen diverted the puck into the net after Todd Kelman's initial effort.

Coventry then punished the Giants' first penalty of the second period shortly after the midway point of the game.

Mark Finney was in the penalty box when Steve Chatrand got the blade of his stick on Steve O'Brien's shot to deflect the puck through Colin Ryder's pad.

The same two players then provided Coventry's equaliser five minutes into the third period, the puck going into the net through a crowd of bodies.

Despite throwing everything at Lehman in the final period, the Giants couldn't get the decisive third goal and the game entered four- on-four overtime.

Paxton Schulte was hit with a slashing penalty just 32 seconds into the added period, but the Giants were still the better team and Curtis Bowen came close to grabbing the winner seconds later on a breakaway.

Both Lehman and Ryder stretched themselves and deserved to take the respective man of the match awards while the teams shared the points.

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