BELFAST Giants head coach Adam Keefe says the focus has now switched from league leaders Cardiff to the teams below them in the table after their 6-3 home defeat to the Manchester Storm.
A hat-trick from Luke Moffatt at the SSE Arena propelled Manchester to the win, backed up by a 35-save performance from Mike Clemente in nets as Ryan Finnerty’s side closed to one point behind Belfast in the standings.
With 13 games left to go in the season, and the Devils with a game in hand over the Giants, the title seems to be slowly slipping away for the second straight season as Belfast go through a rough patch.
After surviving a second leg resurgence from the Nottingham Panthers in their Challenge Cup semi-final on Wednesday night and nearly throwing away a four goal lead over Fife on Friday night, this was a harrowing defeat.
Belfast never recovered from falling three behind inside the first ten minutes, leading Keefe to launch a scathing attack on his charges.
“After tonight we can forget about Cardiff for the time being, we’re just worried about holding onto the second spot,” Keefe confessed. “Manchester, after you’ve seen tonight, is a team that wants that spot and they came out and took it to us tonight.
“We had nothing. You take away (David Rutherford’s) two goals on one shift and it’s a 6-1 hockey game. It’s not good enough. They outperformed us, outworked us and were better than us on the ice.”
The dip in form has come at a concerning time for the Giants, who have now fallen nine points adrift of the rampant Devils, who on the same night put seven past Nottingham on their way to victory.
A lacklustre first period saw them test Clemente all of five times and, while they picked up in the second period, there was nothing in the final 20 to suggest that there was a comeback on the cards.
Indiscipline saw them take ten minor penalties, nine of which were in the second period onwards, while the special teams once again faltered, conceding three powerplay goals and going 0-for-10 on their own.
Indeed, the special teams have been an issue for Belfast recently having scored just four goals on the powerplay in 32 chances (12.5%) while managing a poor penalty kill percentage of 70% in their last five outings.
“The last few games haven’t been good enough and tonight was just an implosion of that,” Keefe blasted.
“It wasn’t good enough. Throughout the entire line-up I didn’t think it was good enough. We didn’t have any jump, they outskated us, outworked us, they were more physical than us and they buried their chances.
“We didn’t allow ourselves to gain any momentum five on five with all the penalties that were called and our special teams didn’t get the job done tonight, and that’s the reason why we lost the game.”
Injuries have taken their toll, with Jim Vandermeer and Colin Shields both being sidelined over the weekend, while netminder Jackson Whistle has limped to a .859 save percentage in his last two starts since returning from an injury that kept him out of a start.
Regardless, Keefe indicated changes will be made ahead of the visit of the Dundee Stars on Wednesday night to try and kickstart a revival, with Dustin Johner likely to return to the roster after being rested on Sunday.
The coach said: “I’ll change the line-up before the next game because someone’s got to give us that spark. At the end of the day we have some guys who aren’t getting it done lately and they’ve got to pick it up. This is playoff hockey, you can’t afford to drop the game tonight and we did.
“We’ll definitely take the learnings from tonight. We have to be better, and I shouldn’t have to tell them but sometimes they need to hear that.”
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