Belfast Giants: Piccinich pleased to have made the move back to Belfast

He explained: “I am really pleased to be back here in Belfast. I think the organisation speaks for itself, it’s great to be involved with it.

“Coming back to Belfast has been such a treat and I am pleased that I made the decision to return this season. The welcome back with open arms has been awesome.”

He says that a number of factors contributed to hid decision, not least the Giants’ winning mentality, something that he was very familiar with.

He said: “There were a number of factors that made my decision an easy one. One part is that my girlfriend is from here and I had met her during my first season with Belfast, so that was also an incentive to come back.

“But also the fact that I was already very familiar with the organisation setup, that was also a deciding factor too.

“I think the way that the organisation takes in players and treats them the way that they do will always be a draw.

“Also, the fact that the Giants are looking to win ever year and that winning mentality was also a big plus for me in making my decision.”

Piccinich was pleased with how the Giants handled last weekend’s games in Manchester and Sheffield.

He said: “Being able to squeeze a point of Sheffield and to take the two points from Manchester made it a good weekend overall.

“You have to bear in mind that we were quite short-benched, so to come home with three points is definitely a positive.

“When you are a competitive hockey team the goal is to win every game, even when you are faced with early adversity.

“We will definitely take those three points from last weekend and be pleased with how we performed.”

He continued: “We found ways to win those points, we were having contributions from everyone on the roster, right across all the lines which were put out on the ice.

“Elijiah has been playing great and but in a superb performance all weekend, Guch has also had a great start to the season and was supplying chances, and then of course we had Cons playing the way he does and getting under people’s skin.

“Then back in goal, we also have two superb goaltenders in Jackson and Tom, they both had big games last weekend and kept the goals against us to an minimum.

“You never really know who is going to step up on a given night but you know that everyone on the team is capable of doing so and it come from all different angles.”

Reflecting on the game against Manchester he says that the Giants got the start that head coach Adam Keefe was asking for.

He says: “We controlled the game right from the very start and got ourselves three goals ahead. You always want to start a game fast and control it from there.

“To have the cushion of the three goals going into the penalty troubles meant that we never relinquished the control of the game.

“Manchester just couldn’t find their way back into the game and we closed them down.

“Being able to do that in a building like Manchester’s, things can happen fast there and get out of your control, but we didn't let that happen and that is a is a great positive for sure.

“It was the sort of road game that you want to play.”

He agrees that the Storm have recruited a good team this season.

He said: “They have done will recruiting. They really competitive with us last weekend, so we know that we are going to keep an eye on them.

“Despite the score being against them, Manchester they kept on trying to fight their way back into the game.

“The score line could have been more had it not been for Jackson playing a great game in goals.

“That building can be so unpredictable so you always need to be alert, it is cliched, but you just never know what can happen in that building.