Belfast Giants coach Adam Keefe described the locker room as ‘heartbroken’ after his facet got here so near inflicting an enormous upset within the Champions Hockey League.
The Elite League champions have been solely 63 seconds away from beating Finnish title holders KalPa when the guests tied the rating at 2-2 earlier than occurring to win the sport 3-2 in additional time.
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The Giants take a degree from the opening recreation however must get better from their disappointment shortly with one other Finnish facet, Ilves Tampere, the opposition on Saturday evening.
“I’ve mentioned to the gamers, don’t get used to this sense. They’re heartbroken, clearly everybody needed to drag out that final minute there,” mentioned Keefe.
“Everybody on the bench performed their half within the recreation and as I say, I’m pleased with them, however on the similar time we have to get higher.
“We have to handle the sport higher so there are plenty of good issues to come back from the sport however lots to study from it as properly forward of Saturday.”
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Giants by no means trailed…till the very finish
The Giants took the lead towards their larger ranked opponents after solely 53 seconds when Patrick Grasso scored from a decent angle.
The tempo of the sport was a degree or two larger than the Elite League and it wasn’t lengthy earlier than the Finnish facet exerted stress on the Giants internet and equalised by way of Jaakko Rissanen.
Nonetheless as soon as they have been on top of things the Giants dominated the second interval and deservedly took the lead when Ryan Smith scored on the powerplay.
On the different finish Alexis Gravel was making some big saves to protect the lead helped by a smothering Giants defence was stored KalPa at bay till simply 63 seconds from the tip of the regulation.
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With their netminder pulled for an additional attacker the Giants couldn’t maintain again the wave after wave of assaults.
A fortuitous rebound discovered Juuso Mäenpää who tied the sport.
Patrick Curry scored the additional time winner because the Finnish facet celebrated a ‘snatch and seize’ win.
“The second interval specifically we had plenty of possibilities that we didn’t capitalise on,” added Keefe.
“Within the third interval we bought fatigued and we would have liked to make just a few small performs to present us time within the offensive zone to permit us to search out some composure and time to suppose.
“We weren’t in a position to try this and in the end they most likely deserved that recreation tying aim the best way they have been coming at us in waves.
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“That’s irritating to take however the guys put in an amazing effort from Alexis all the best way out and that’s nice to see from our group.
“It‘s an excellent one to construct on, but in addition irritating that we didn’t get the three factors.”