THE Belfast Giants lost their spot at the top of the Elite League table following Saturday’s 6-3 defeat by the Cardiff Devils.
The Welsh side have taken over at the summit after beating Manchester Storm last night while the Giants lost 3-2 after overtime and penalty shots to the Dundee Stars in the Challenge Cup at the SSE Arena to complete a disappointing weekend.
In last night’s game the the Giants threw away a two-goal lead and then went down 2-1 in the shoot-out after overtime had failed to separate the teams.
The hosts took the lead in the fifth minute when Brandon Benedict set up Mike Radja who slotted the puck past Vlastimil Lakosic in the Stars goal.
With under three minutes left in the first period, player-coach Derrick Walser made it 2-0 when he slammed home a great pass from Benedict.
Stars pressure was eventually rewarded 14 minutes into the second period when Bobby Chaumont slid the puck home to reduce the deficit to 2-1 and 38 seconds into the final 20 minutes, Justin Faryna tied things up.
So the game went into overtime and, ultimately, penalty shots with Benedict on target for the Giants and Lou Dickenson getting both for the visitors who went home with the extra point.
On Saturday the Giants had seen their lead at the top of the Elite League standings cut to a single point after that defeat in Cardiff.
The Devils opened the scoring in the fifth minute when Andrew Hotham fired the puck high into the net on a powerplay after Kris Beech had been binned.
Then it was the turn of the Giants to take advantage of their own powerplay opportunity in the first period as Mike Wilson slotted the puck past Ben Bowns in the Cardiff net.
Shortly afterwards, it was 2-1 as a nice breakout saw Walser pass the puck to Benedict who fed Radja and he picked his spot on 16:37.
The Devils tied things up two minutes into the second period as their top scorer Joey Martin made the Giants pay for losing possession near their own goal as he slotted the puck home.
Four minutes later, Martin made it 3-2 when he scored on a five-on-three powerplay while the Giants had two men sitting in the penalty box.
Tomas Kurka’s sixth goal of the season increased the Devils’ lead and the same player added his second and his team’s fifth near the end of the second to leave the visitors with it all to do.
The Giants did pull one goal back through man-of-the-match Radja, assisted by Benedict on 43:51 but any lingering hopes of a fightback were dashed when Joey Haddad netted for the hosts on yet another powerplay with eight minutes remaining.