Belfast celebrate title after Steelers fail in their giant task

SHEFFIELD Steelers’ title challenge ended on Friday night at the home of the new Elite League champions.

Belfast Giants ran out 5-1 winners against the Steelers to clinch the title with two games to spare.

Ryan Finnerty’s Sheffield still have two games in hand but in trailing the their rivals by nine points with only eight points still to play for, the championship is out of reach.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Giants’ victory was their 15th consecutive win, summing up how well they have played down the closing stretch of the campaign.

The size of the task Finnerty’s men faced at the Odyssey Arena was emphasised within the first six minutes as Belfast swept into a 2-0 lead.

Robert Dowd and Jon Pelle set the Giants on their way before Sheffield showed their fighting spirit with a goal from Jeff Legue with 87 seconds remaining in the opening period.

The game remained nip-and-tuck until the 14th minute of the middle period when Aaron Clarke scored Belfast’s third.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The celebrations began among the home crowd five minutes into the third when Paul Deniset gave the Giants a fourth before Jeremy Rebek rubbed salt into the Steelers’ wounds with a fifth at 18:31.

It is the second regular season title for the Giants, their previous success coming back in 2005-06.

The two teams go head-to-head again on Saturday night (7pm) with Sheffield now secure in second spot.

Sheffield then visit their Yorkshire rivals Hull Stingrays on Sunday at the Hull Arena (6pm). Sylvain Cloutier’s men have yet to confirm their place in the end-of-season play-offs with Dundee and Edinburgh still within range of the Stingrays.