GAME THREAD: Giants v Steelers Saturday, 12th March 7:00pm

[smbmetal]

Didn't watch Friday's game but followed it on Twitter and watched Saturday's webcast. Excellent game, performance and result with a proper gutsy road performance especially after Friday's result and our recent form and poor results. We looked really up for it from the start, which is obviously what we expect every game but it was good to see that we can pull that type of performance out of the bag when we are up against it and need it most. This being even more important after our last "big" game being the shocking semi-final display against the Devils.

Thought our tenacity on the puck and in puck and board battles was especially high, love to see everyone buying into that forwards and D - everyone had a good game through out the lineup, I thought Feldner was impressive on the forecheck he managed to force the Giants into coughing up the puck in their zone a few times. Good to see us adapt with a more physical style of play which both the Giants and Devils have tested us with and show that we can be successful with that style. Thought Ellerby was immense, he's copped for a lot of comment on social media but I thought he had real presence and was taking the body and being physical as we all hoped when he was signed.

We took our chances well when they came, which seemed to be the major difference between the teams on Friday night. Good to see Eberle & Armstrong bag one felt like they needed that and thought Armstrong had one of his best games of the season, seemed to win a lot of vital face-offs especially as the Giants piled it on at the end. Whistle and ASD who came into the lineup were excellent as well, the goal from Whistle assisted by ASD was a thing of beauty.

Hopefully now we can build on this momentum, stay fit (obviously Mosey picked up something on Friday) and string some wins together. Lots of hockey still to be played for both teams, the remaining 3 games against each other are sure to be intense play off style, bring it on, an exciting end to the season and both teams still in striking distance of lifting the trophy, but we definitely needed this win and performance to stay in the hunt and show that our dip in form and results was exactly just that.

An excellent summary. I also watched the webcast and even though I went for a Steelers win well before the weekend, I didn’t expect what I would call a complete performance, especially after the disappointment on Friday. Every single player played a good game and we throughly deserved the win. Let’s hope it’s not a one off and that effort for the full 60 minutes is given game in and game out. If it is we will win the league.