Giants focus is firmly on title chase says head coach Adam Keefe

With a home defeat to the Sheffield Steelers and then an “ugly” overtime defeat to Coventry Blaze, the Giants need to learn lessons from last weekend ahead of the visit of inform Nottingham Panthers for the double-header this weekend.

Reflecting on the defeat to Sheffield, Keefe said: “I think we had a really good performance against Sheffield. Ultimately we made too many mistakes in that game.

“We let it slip away from us and we has allowed them to get back into the title race. That can be very dangerous when you consider just how good a hockey team they are.

“That being said, that game is over. We can’t get it back, we need to move forward to the next game.”

While Keefe didn’t mind the effort he saw from his squad against Coventry game they, in the end, got stung with the overtime loss.

He said: “I didn’t mind the effort from the squad after the two early goals went in against Coventry on Sunday night.

“Ultimately they forced us to play their style of hockey which can be very back and forth.

“I think we found out that is not us and is not our style of hockey.

“We got stung in the shootout. Once you get to overtime or a shootout a game can go either way, it is what it is.

“We didn't do enough to turn the game and control it to allow us get the job down in regulation.”

Keefe admits that he had a certain amount of frustration when he spoke to Coventry Blaze TV at the end of the game.

He said: “We just didn’t do enough to win that game. I felt we were very sloppy and it was ugly hockey.

“That sort of hockey simply doesn’t suit us. Because of that, it felt like we had no control in the game, which is frustrating, and it ended up stinging us.”

He remains confident that the Giants are one of the front runners in the league title chase.

He said: “Obviously it is a little blip in our league title chase, but it is still all ahead of us.

“I have just finished meeting with the players and have impressed upon them that we are in a very good position still.

“The team that is going to separate the pack of five or six teams that are in the chase right now, that team will be the one that starts to play playoff hockey right now and maintains consistency.

“We want that to be us, we want to be special and we don’t want to be part of the chasing pack.”

Keefe agrees that the Giants are in a much better place compared to this time last season and he remains confident that Belfast can challenge the current leaders, the Cardiff Devils.

“Certainly the meetings that I was having with the players this time last year are a lot different from what I am having this January.

“This time last year we were out of the Challenge Cup and we were well behind Sheffield in the league standings.

“This year, that is not the case, we want to make sure that we can take advantage of this opportunity that has been given to us, the players have done the work in the first five months to ensure that we are where we are.

“We have 17 home games and 11 road games to be played, we want to take advantage of the games that are left in the schedule.”