Giants' effort against Skellefteå praised by head coach Keefe

Keefe remarked: “I am very proud of the whole squad. I am a little gutted for them in the end, that they weren't able to hold on to push the game into overtime.

“The margins for error against these teams in the CHL is very little and ultimately we gave up to many chances and they had some at the end of the second period which they didn't take.

“Had we scored on our chances it would have been a completely different game and put Skellefteå on their heels a little bit more.

“But I am really proud of the guys effort, we stuck with them and certainly when you look at the shot tally we are up there with them.

“We should take pride that we took 23 shots against one of the biggest teams in Europe. It was impressive, especially with the amount of powerplays that they had.”

Reflecting on the second period Keefe said: “It was a great confidence builder for our group to take the lead in a game like this.

“It was a big challenge to ask of our group to hold on to that lead, if not build on it.”

The Giants’ CHL campaign will undoubtedly give them a boost going into their domestic season.

“We know that when we skate well we can compete against all these big European teams,” said Keefe. “We need to take this confidence and bring it into our domestic campaign. We have to take the lessons that we have learned this past few weeks and play at a high pace like we did tonight. If we can do that, we can compete with anybody.”