Belfast Giants have destiny in their own hands says JJ Piccinich

“It’s nice to be at the top of the league,” he said. “We have to keep playing well as there is still a lot of hockey left to be played this season.”

Four points separate the Giants and the Cardiff Devils in second place, but there is still plenty of points yet to be played, nothing has been decided yet.

The Giants certainly do not want the title chase going right down to the wire. They want to eliminate as many contenders as quickly as they can.

“We have a game in hand over Cardiff and the four point lead. However you want to quantify that, it is what it is. We can’t take anything for granted.”

He continued: “We were in a very similar situation this time last year. We dropped a couple games, I think one was to Manchester and another to Dundee.

“The next thing you know, Sheffield was on our tail, and they had the tiebreaker.

“I remember, as do the other returning players, how much it took to get it the job done, how it came right to the last game last season.

“It was a crazy end to the season. The league didn’t know where the cup should be, it was in Nottingham were we where.

“They then had to make a decision when we were losing whether or not put it in a car and drive it to Sheffield.

“It was mayhem. It would be nice to have something a little bit more consistent, that would be good. We didn’t do ourselves any favours last year.”

Piccinich says that the Giants really do not want to find themselves in a similar situation, they want to wrap the title race up sooner rather than later.

He explained: “Every play and every bounce counted last season. We know fragile a lead in this league can be, so we have perform at our best.”

Piccinich believes the Giants will take the recent overtime loss to the Coventry Blaze as a benchmark ahead next week, when they clash with the West Midlands team twice, once on Sunday, and then again on Wednesday in the first leg of the Challenge Cup.

“We’ll be using that last game against Coventry as a benchmark,” said Piccinich. “It is going to take everything for us to beat them.

“It takes a whole team to accomplish great things in this league. Everyone has to be pulling the rope in right direction.

“We all know that Coventry have been hot as of late, we are going to need to be dialled in right from the start.”

He believes that the Giants need to stick to their “processes and fundamentals” to see off the Blaze, especially in the upcoming Challenge Cup semi final games.

He said: “We lost the last game against Coventry in the first period with those two early goals.

“We always want to deliver a good punch in the first period of a game.

“That’s what we need to do, it sets the tone for the rest of the game.”

The Giants are in action Friday when the host the Fife Flyers at the SSE Arena, with a faceoff time of 7pm.