Belfast Double Header Preview

League Record So Far; 23 – 12 – 2, 48pts, 4th Place

Challenge Cup; Finalist

2025 Honours; IIHF Continental Cup Winners

L10GP; 5 – 5 – 0

Devils head across to Belfast for a showdown with Giants in a double header that may go on to decide the eventual champions of this EIHL season.

The cup finalists, will begin their battle from 4th, after slumping from the top during their monumental success in the IIHF Continental Cup, allowing Giants to take over and with that, control the destiny of those chasing them.

There is an 11 point point gap between them, but that happened before, with Giants chasing Flames two seasons ago, eventually overcoming the deficit and taking the grandest of prizes in UK hockey.

With so many bodies short, it will be interesting to see who makes the trip, however recent signing Ben Almquist from Lillehammer (Norway), joined the team for a quick skate and will start on Friday.

Here is what we can expect from this showdown;

Giants have just 2 regulation wins in their L5GP, with one needing a shootout for the extra point. Devils are trying to return to consistent ways, with such a tough set of opposition in the next few weeks, they will need all the energy and momentum they can muster.

Some recent results have been satisfactory from teams ahead of them, with the ‘big 4’ all vying to claim that title.

This double header will be the 4th and 5th meetings between these team, with Giants narrowly and against the flow of play winning two, then dominating a third game. This lead to a windfall of 3 wins leaving Devils only able to manage one point from six, so far against their biggest rivals this season.

Heading into this one isn’t such a forgone conclusion those with bullish or pessimistic views would believe. Giants aren’t too indomitable and Devils are more than due a win against them this season.

Scoring 18 and conceding 10, Giants have shown vulnerability at the back and against the Devils, compared to their LG5GP on average, put up less shots overall. That is largely due to good defensive performances by Devils and for a while, they held the league overall GAA.

Giants are 16.9% less likely to put up the same amount of shot attempts vs Devils than they have against their most recent opposition, including Flyers where they launched 88 shots, with 61 on net (their L5GP average for SA was 65).

In their series so far, both teams have similar SOG against each other, Devils edging by 0.2 statistically but Belfast look for more chances, leading by 4 additional attempts.

Devils have however been increasing their attempts on goal over the course of the L5GP, which shows promise and confidence from the forwards group.

I would expect this game to be a tight contest with the winners back stopped by the more dialled in goalies. Overall, both teams have conceded the same amount of goals, 94.

How the preferred tandems shape up this season

The overall GAA, is another variable that is very close in comparison to one another, separated by just 0.13 in Giants’ favour. They sit 3rd & 4th respectively in that category with all goalies included.

In terms of league games won, both Giants goalies have the advantage thanks to 3rd overall for goalie wins (Whistle, 15W), with a combined 28 over Devils’ main tandem for 20.

However, due to a lot of injury time, Giants have played their tandem across more leagues games, 40 in total, split evenly, with Bowns (19) and Carruth (13) making up for 8 less GP overall.

This will be too close to call, but Carruth vs McCollum on Friday night might be choice for the respective coaches.

Top 10 leaders amongst the shot stoppers in wins overall (Regular season)

Devils have 2 games in hand over Giants, so despite that 11 goal deficit, they have only won one game less, which means there is no room for error in the business end of the season, which realistically kicked off last weekend.

Giants have seen 7 games go to OT, with four wins out of those, meanwhile Devils have only been taken for extras twice, losing both times, one of those to Belfast ay home, despite a dominant start.

This has all the hallmarks of a great battle, which Devils would be desperate to come away with maximum or as close to near max points as possible.

For instance, it will be leagues best PK (Devils) at 85.85% with Giants at 79.86% (4th) against the league leaders at 2nd overall for the power play with 24.56%. Devils loiter in 7th at 79.44%. Almost carbon opposites.

Leadership

In the top 5 player leaders, MacDonald (45) sits 3rd overall with Conway (41) in 5th spot. MacDonald is 2nd overall for goals scored (22) and has been in the top 3 all season.

He needs just 3 points for 60 in the EIHL this season so far.

One player over 200 points ahead of him is ‘Goal’ Sanford who is at 5 points in his L5GP. His lineman, O’Brien has also been on a heater, going for 8 points in his L5GP, with 4 goals to the good.

The Goat, Joey Martin is currently having a great season and in the last 3GP he has also scored 4 goals and is currently projected to 47 points on the season, already 2 points from equalling last years efforts.

Giants’ Mark Cooper has been on a heater of his own recently, scoring in the L5GP straight, also putting up 8 points. amazingly not securing a point in the goal fest in Fife a few weeks ago where a total of 12 goals were scored, including a JJ Piccinich hatty (38pts and 50 EIHL overall this season) who needs just 2 more points for 150 in the EIHL as a Giant.

Cooper needs only 9 to have the same return, which is more than possible before the end of this season or even by the Challenge Cup Final, should Belfast be hosting vs finalists, Devils.

Giants took over their games vs Devils by playing physically at the blue line and along the wings to deny easier zone transitions, then hitting hard on the counter attack.

Devils being so depleted and weary of injury would likely be cautious, but if they do forecheck hard and strike as fast as possible, it would be a night for the men in white and their travelling fans, hoping for something, anything form this trip to celebrate and go home with.

After all, Wales host Ireland in the rugby and that is enough to keep the doom and gloom hovering over the country for now.

No pressure, lads.

Head to Head so far this season, Devils vs Giants

Want more content and EIHL related updates? Check out Episode 41 of the EIHL Face Off Podcast here; https://x.com/EIHLFaceOff/status/1892212554992095740 Available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.