24 Feb 2024, 19:00 | Regular season | SSE Arena Belfast |
Belfast Giants | 7-4 | Fife Flyers |
Periods: Shots: | 2-2 (14-7) | 1-0 (10-2) | 4-2 (12-5) | Total: 36-14 |
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Referees: Matthews/Vytas Lukosevicius (LTU)  |  Spectators: 7257 |
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Goals and assists
Kohei Sato logged a Gordie Howe hat trick, and then a hat trick of
his own, as Belfast Giants beat Fife Flyers 7-4 with over 7,200 fans
inside the SSE Arena.
It was a four-goal opening period on Cowboy night in Belfast.
Teemu Pulkkinen opened the scoring shorthanded with a neat breakaway
finish while Brady Poteau sat for Boarding. Travis Brown levelled at
6:39 when he got on a loose puck to push it over the line in close after
Dominik Salama couldn't hold onto Cameron Pound's shot from the point.
Johan Eriksson put the Flyers back ahead when he squeezed the puck past
Tyler Beskorowany after being left all alone in the slot, but the period
did end tied. After Poteau and Kohei Sato had dropped the gloves,
Daniel Tedesco scored a fine individual goal to level things up at
16:41.
Sato then put the Giants ahead 11:37 into period two to complete a
Geordie Howe hat trick following an assist on the Giants’ opening goal
in the first, the only goal of period two.
The Japanese international was fast-becoming the star of the show
for the home side with an individual goal through Salama’s five-hole
100 seconds into period three to give the Giants a two-goal cushion.
Lucas Chiodo did excellently to turn the puck over along the
boards in the Giants’ zone and feed Vitalijs Pavlovs in front to cut the
deficit back down to one with 13:40 to play as the Flyers refused to go
away, but 37 seconds later David Goodwin’s one-timer took a deflection
on its way to the net to put the Giants back two ahead. Tom Coolen
wanted a video review on the play, but the officials were satisfied
there was no high stick and play continued – coaches can only challenge
goaltender interference.
Again the Flyers got themselves back to within one, but again
they were undone by the Giants again quickly after. Sean Giles pulled it
back to 5-4 at 49:44, only for David Goodwin to score 20 seconds later
again.
Sato made it a hat trick to round off a three-goal win for the hosts.