Belfast Giants confident of league success going into a huge final weekend

The Giants themselves remain confident they can get the job done and bring the league trophy back to Belfast.

Last weekend's slip-up against the Manchester Storm means that to secure the league title that they will need to beat the Nottingham Panthers twice this weekend.

Giants’ assistant coach George Awada admits that last weekend was a mix bag of results.

He said: “We knew that it could be a tale of two games last weekend, that was definitely the case when it comes to the game against Manchester.

“Even though Manchester are in eighth place in the league, they are still very much alive and are fighting to finish their league campaign in a better position.

“They have an opportunity to get into the playoffs, so they had something to fight for.

“That game was what it was, we would have liked have come out with the win, but when you are playing a desperate team it can be difficult to deal with.

“Their goalie was superb throughout the game, we had plenty of chances in that game but it is hard to get by a goalie.”

Awada agrees at this time of the season with a lot of desperate hockey being played every team can be dangerous.

He said: “When a team is playing that type of hockey you can see it right away. Manchester were very loose and they had nothing to lose.

“They were also hungry which is what makes a team at this time of the season so dangerous.

“It was clear that they were going into the game with the mentality that ‘this could be our last time’ and they wanted to go for it.

“They played well right from the first puck was dropped. Their goalie backstopped them and was seeing everything, and when you have that all added together, it can make a frustrating game for sure.

“Our guys certainly didn’t take it easy because they are an eighth or ninth place team, but it came down to that they were desperate and hungry.”

Awada says the Giants will take the loss against Manchester as a motivator going into the games against Nottingham this weekend.

He explained: “It wasn’t just last weekend, there were also games earlier in the season which could have allowed us to have an easier run into the final games of the season, so we can’t let last Sunday’s result a focus in our heads.

“It will definitely be motivation going into this final weekend, on Saturday we needed to win two games of the next three games to win the title, the loss on Sunday isn’t the end of the world.

“It is a good setup for this weekend with the two games against Nottingham.

“They are also a very hungry and desperate team and they have done well to be up there competing with ourselves and Sheffield.

“We are now looking at one-off games and we need to be ready for them.”

While this weekend’s two games are huge, Awada believes that the Giants have had plenty of big games this season.

He said: “We have had a lot of big games this season already. If you look back at the game against Cardiff in the Challenge Cup, and then also the two semis against Nottingham to get to that final, they were big games this season.

“The Cardiff double-header weekend also got our season going for sure.”

He added: “It is good that we will be starting on home ice, we have had plenty of success here at home, but that doesn't mean that we can take Nottingham lightly.

“Whatever happens that night will of course determine what happens on the Sunday.

“Either way we need to win two games, so hopefully we end up on the right side of results.”