Belfast Giants made sure they stayed at least seven points clear at the top of the Elite League table with a 3-1 win over Manchester Storm, completing a four-point weekend.

"It's huge," said Bo Hanson on the team's four-point weekend. "Every point in this league matters, every game matters, and we want to win every single game that we can. It was good this weekend. We battled hard against Guildford, and tonight, we played they way we could for the majority of the game.

The Giants started strongly and grabbed the opener at 6:24. Ben Lake did well to find Jordan Kawaguchi, who flicked the puck past David Tendeck to open the scoring.

Six minutes later, the Giants' lead was doubled through Bo Hanson. He carried the puck into the offensive zone and unleashed a shot which squeezed under the glove of Tendeck to give the Giants a two goal cushion at 13:06. Neither team could capitalise on a powerplay thereafter, meaning the period finished with the Giants two goals ahead.

Belfast grabbed a third at 23:18 through Scott Conway. Karl Boudrais drove into the offensive zone and picked out Conway in the left circle. Conway did the rest, unleashing a rocket past Tendeck.

"We didn't like the way we played in the first two periods against Guildford. We loved the way we played in the third, and we want to keep building," added Hanson. "We want to have championship standards, and that third period and the majority of tonight was what we want to see out of us."

The Storm forced Whistle into some excellent saves and had the chance to get on the board at the end of the period. They called a timeout when they went on a 5-on-3 powerplay. However, they couldn't take advantage with the Giants remaining three ahead, with Whistle a very big reason why they didn't.

Gianluca Estevez did get Storm on the board at 7:19 after the Giants turned the puck over while exciting the zone. Some five minutes later, it looked as if the visitors had got a second but Estevez's goal was called back after video review as he'd thrown a floating puck into the net.

Although Storm tried, they couldn't beat Whistle again and the Giants took a two-goal win.