Sport

Giants face up to crucial Steelers double-header

 The Giants are preparing for a crunch double-header at the SSE Arena
 The Giants are preparing for a crunch double-header at the SSE Arena  The Giants are preparing for a crunch double-header at the SSE Arena

BELFAST Giants’ fans with long memories will be hoping not to experience a sense of déjà-vu over the weekend when Elite League champions, the Sheffield Steelers, visit the SSE Arena for a crucial double-header, starting with tonight’s encounter (7pm).

Derrick Walser’s team are well-placed going into the games, as they trail leaders, the Cardiff Devils, by just four points following a success run that has yielded 10 wins in the last 11 matches.

The current season bears a striking resemblance to the last campaign as the Giants went into a new year double-header with the Steelers hot on the Devils’ heels after winning seven out of their last eight games in 2015 only to suffer some damaging January blues.

Back-to-back defeats against the Yorkshire outfit this time last year, followed by losses to Nottingham Panthers and Cardiff, ultimately left the Giants with too much to do and Sheffield finished the season in style to retain the trophy after reaching the summit for the first time only in March.

The champions are poised for another late title challenge as they lie in third place in the table, six points behind the Giants but with three games fewer played, adding even more significance to the weekend games.

The Steelers proved to be the Giants’ nemesis last season, winning seven out of eight encounters and, in the current campaign, can boast two 5-1 home wins before they went down 2-1 in Belfast last month.

However, after a testing schedule that involved seven games in 11 days, the Giants have had time to rest up this week before concentrating their efforts in preparing for the Sheffield games.

Forward David Rutherford missed the corresponding games a year ago as he only arrived in Belfast from Edinburgh Capitals at the end of January.

The 29-year-old increased his goal tally to 11 with a brace in last Sunday’s 4-1 win over Coventry Blaze, when two late empty-netters from Jeff Mason and Chris Higgins put some gloss on the scoreline.

“It’s a huge weekend for us and they’re right behind us in the standings; they’re a great team, they’re coached really well and have some great players.” said the Canadian.

“It was good to get the goals against Coventry as I hadn’t been scoring too many recently but I remained positive.

“I think we were something like 16 points behind Cardiff at one stage but I think, over here, people maybe get a little too focussed on watching the team that’s ahead of you.

“I think they sometimes push the panic button and, a couple of months ago, they were calling for heads to roll but we stuck together in the dressing-room and that says a lot for the guys.

“We’ve done what we needed to do and you’ve got to remember it’s a long season, so it has to be a one game at a time approach, starting with the first one against Sheffield.”

Tomorrow’s game has a 4pm face-off.