Adam Keefe believes dropped points won’t upset Giants league ambitions

While important points may have been dropped, head coach Adam Keefe remains confident that it won’t upset the Giants’ league ambitions.

He said: “While the results weren’t great and what we had hoped for but I did think that were a little snake bit.

“Had we scored another goal or two in both games then probably we would have won those games.”

He added: “I certainly felt that we deserved to score another goal or two but we ran into two goalies were are in hot form right now.

“While that is not excuse, you have to find ways to break down hot goalies down.

“I also think we needed to be more careful with the penalties that we took.

“That allowed both Manchester and Glasgow back into those games and gave them a little bit of life, which is not what we do.”

He continued: “But if I am honest and look at those two games as a whole, I did like the players effort in both those games. I do feel that we deserved a better fate in both those games that what we came away with.

“That has to be the most frustrating thing from last weekend for sure.

“When you look at what could have been, with us getting further points ahead of Sheffield and Nottingham in second and third place respectively.

“The points lost are disappointing but overall we have to be happy that we weren’t laying an egg.”

Looking back at the aggregate win against the Nottingham Panthers last Wednesday to book the Giants spot in next week’s Challenge Cup final at the SSE Arena, Keefe says that he didn't believe that the Giants deserved to be shutout on the night but that Jackson Whistle played a massive game in goal.

He said: “Even if you go back to the Nottingham game in the second leg of the Challenge Cup semi final, it has been a case of coming up against a couple of good goalies.

“In Nottingham we got shutout there too, I certainly didn’t think we deserved to be shutout either, we had plenty of scoring chances to build on our aggregate lead.

“The first thirty minutes were great and then we got into penalty trouble.

“That gave Nottingham some life.

“But I thought Jackson Whistle was great in goals for us all night and he gave us every chance of getting through to the final.”

Keefe agrees that there are lessons to be learnt from last weekend.

He explained: “We will definitely last weekend as a learning opportunity. One of the things which we need to look at is having more killer instinct in the third period.

“You need to know that, like in the game against Glasgow, that a team is going to push back.

“We need to manage the puck well and not take penalties.

“Those are the areas that we need to improve upon and we will be address them.

“If we are going to win the league we will need to do those things because it is only going to get harder. Everybody is playing for something and everybody gets a little closer to playoffs.”

Keefe added: “One thing we have been really good at this year is bouncing back from loses like last weekend.

“We are very focused on making sure that a bad weekend doesn't turn into two or three bad weekends.

“For us it is about the process, it is about getting back to what makes us successful and that will give us the best chance of winning the league.”

The Giants play the Dundee Stars on Saturday with a faceoff time of 7pm. They are then on the road on Sunday to face the Guildford Flame.