Belfast Giants: Kawaguchi is happy to take the positives from a three point weekend

Jordan is confident that he can continue that momentum into the rest of the season.

He said: “It has been a very good start to the season for me here in Belfast. When the team is doing well and it has success, it helps enhance your own game.

“All the games so far in the season have gone really well for us as a team and I am happy with my start.

“I have every confidence that this is just the start and that my season will continue to improve, but it is about keeping that momentum.

“My focus is helping the team win games, if that’s creating plays or scoring goals, that is what I need to do.”

Jordan says he is looking forward to the Giants first league game in front of the SSE fans.

He said: “The fans here in Belfast are unbelievable, they can be so important in lifting a team. And that will be the case with us being short staffed, the fans will give us a great boost.

“Any given night the arena can be packed with fans who want to see us win and want to win ourselves too.

“It is a lot more fun win you are winning for sure. I am really excited about that and the energy that our fans will bring.”

Reflecting on last weekend’s games Jordan says, overall, the Giants were pleased with how the games went.

He said: “I think overall the two games last weekend for the Giants went really well. Getting three out of the four points on the road is a positive that we can take from those games.

“Especially when you consider how the team is short-benched at the minute with all the injuries.

“While that can’t be in anyway an excuse as we still have a job to do, but when you play back-to-back like that and play teams like Sheffield and Manchester it is nice to take the points.

“Being short-benched did play a small factor in the games, but we played a good game against those two teams. Sadly, we didn’t get the job done in the shoot out against Sheffield.”

Despite missing out in the shoot out against Sheffield it was an excellent game from the Giants.

Jordan remarked: “I think that game went really for us right from the start. Unfortunately we missed on on the win in the shoot out, but that’s sometimes how a game will go.

“We went into that game fully aware that it was going to be a tough battle, we have only eight forwards and six defencemen, we showed great determination to battle throughout that game.

“I think we played in Sheffield was a great indication of what sort of a team that has been put together this year, it is a team that wants to play and compete, not matter what their circumstances are.

“It is a team that wants to win and that’s a great motivator for everyone on the roster. Sheffield played well against us and they are no doubt a good hockey team this year.”

Mark Cooper’s early goal (with an assist from Jordan) helped to silence the Steelers fans.

“That early goal, after just more than three minutes, made us realise that we had the game in hand and that we could cause an upset against Sheffield,” said Jordan.

“Going into that game some of us were a little nervous about how the game might go. But that early goal was a much needed momentum changer for sure.

“While the game may not have ended the way that we wanted, we can take away a lot of positives from the game.”

Jordan was full of praise for goaltender Tom McCollum who played a massive game for the Giants.

He said: “You can’t win hockey game, you can’t win consistently, you can’t win leagues and championships without a really good goalie.

“The Giants are very lucky to have two superb goalies in Tom McCollum and Jackson Whistle.

“We definitely saw the quality of Tom against Sheffield and he was important player in that game.

“Jackson has also played some big games for us too and they will instrumental in our season.

“We have two really good goalies and the team has full confidence in them both. When you have that confidence in a team you are going to win games.”