Wayne Hardman

Murphy is Belfast’s the key signing

Most successful hockey coaches look to build from the back forward meaning get a solid consistent goalie with a goals against average of a less than two goals per game and you are on an excellent start for the season.

Well the Giants have that for the last few seasons and were in danger of losing the Elite League’s All Star puck stopper to higher leagues and more money in Europe.

Coach Christiansen

It was fingernail biting time for Belfast Coach Christiansen until he received good the news with the return of Stephen Murphy as the starting net minder for the 2012/13 season.

Following the historic making season during the Giants championship winning campaign, Stephen Murphy has returned. Murphy was the first-ever British goalie to lead his team to the Elite League Championship in 2011/12 with a franchise record 46 wins in 54 league games.

Goalie of the Year and Giants First Team All Star Goalie Stephen Murphy

Murphy played for Coach Christiansen in Scotland whilst Doug was coaching Edinburgh. The Scottish-born goalie led the league with a 92.6% save percentage, was picked as the League’s Best Net minder and was also named to the Elite League’s First All-Star Team. He also voted Top British Net minder by the UK Ice Hockey Journalists for the third year in a row.

Murphy’s goal against average of 1.79 was the lowest in the Elite League and the stingiest ever by a Giants net minder. He led the league in all goaltending categories including shutouts with 7 blank sheets throughout the season.

Giants GM Todd Kelman

“Without a doubt, Murphy is the most valuable player in the league,” said General Manager Todd Kelman, “I am very pleased to have him back for another season.”

“We have a very strong core of non-import players, which have been the key to our championships over the last few years. At the heart of that is Murphy who we plan on building another championship contending team around.

“There isn’t a player in the league I would sign over Murphy and although it took a little longer to get him signed this year, we now know the type of players we need to sign to defend our title.”

Coach Doug Christiansen echoed Kelman’s words:
“Getting Stephen back is a massive coup for us. Murphy is the best goalie in the league and was our best player last season.

“Murphy has ice water running through his veins. He is extremely composed and never gets upset. He is very focused on his job and maintains his own routine.

“I am excited to work with him again next season. I know he had offers to go to other countries but his return signals that he is committed to helping to defend our title.”

Graham Walton

With the signing a committed solid goalie Murphy, together with Graham Walton the Belfast born player heading into his tenth season, plus the return of UK born Davy Philips all anchoring themselves to the Giants roster means Christiansen’s recruitment plan is going nicely early post season.

Now if Christiansen can secure the return of some of the key core ingredience of the championship win team from the pool of available players in North America, the Belfast outfit can look forward with confidence to the up coming season hoping to retain the league title.

Written by Wayne Hardman

Stephen Murphy
Goalie
Born Dec 11 1981 — Dundee, Scotland
Height 5.10 — Weight 176 — Shoots L

Season Team Lge GP Min GA EN SO GAA W L T Svs Pct
———————————————————————————————–
1999-00 Fife Flyers BNL 30 1774 63 0 0 0.00 0 0 0
2000-01 Fife Flyers BNL 12 720 22 0 0 1.83 0 0 0
2001-02 Dundee Stars BNL 43 2359 91 0 0 2.31 0 0 0
2008-09 Manchester Phoenix EIHL 52 0 0 0 0 0.00 0 0 0
2010-11 Belfast Giants EIHL 48 2872 118 0 2 2.47 36 10 2

— Regular Season — —- Playoffs —-
Season Team Lge GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts

————————————————————————————–
1997-98 Paisley Pirates BNL 2 0 0 0 0
1998-99 Fife Flyers BNL 7 0 1 1 0 8 0 0 0
1999-00 Fife Flyers BNL 35 0 0 0 4 11 0 1 1
2000-01 Fife Flyers BNL 12 0 1 1 0
2001-02 Dundee Stars BNL 44 0 6 6 0 10 0 2 2
2002-03 Dundee Stars BNL 36 0 2 2 4
2003-04 Bracknell Bees BNL 8 0 1 1 0
2004-05 Bjorkloven IF Swe-1 6 0 0 0 0
2005-06 Arboga IFK Swe-1 41 0 0 0 0
2006-07 Edinburgh Capitals EIHL 53 0 1 1 4 — – — –
2008-09 Manchester Phoenix EIHL 52 0 4 4 4 2 0 0 0
2010-11 Belfast Giants EIHL 48 0 0 0 0
2011-12 Belfast Giants EIHL 54 0 1 1 0
———————————————————————————–

Davey Phillips back as a Giant.

At this period of the off season all Coaches and GM get together with a list players they would dearly love to retain and those who they may wish they had rather not signed in the first place.

Fortunately for the Giants this is no longer the case as Doug Christiansen does such a great recruitment, research and development program I’m sure he knows more about the players they hope to recruit than the players themselves and or their agents.

No one outworks the Giants Mr Christiansen in this department and how lucky they are to have him for another two campaigns. Once you secure your local indigenous players who are becoming the backbone of the Elite League. You can start looking for import players that will enhance your home grown and extremely valuable local players.

Doug Christiansen will enjoy coaching yet another Giants new team

With costs become more of a limiting factor in putting together a winning sporting team. This is exemplified brilliantly in the movie “Money Ball” which is an excellent example of what the modern GM and Coach have to do to be success on the field whilst staying in the black financially. One often wonders if all the teams prescribe to this principle however, no names or pack drill!

With the above in mind the Giants have brought back into the fold the very talented David Philips signed to a new two-year contract bringing the Great Britain International back to the Giants after three seasons away from Belfast.

Davey Phillips back as a Giant

“Davey Phillips back as a Giant”

Phillips has played two seasons in North America first in the American Hockey League with the Rockford Ice Hogs, the top affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks as well as a season in the East Coast Hockey League.

Coming back to the UK Phillips split time between the Elite League’s Coventry Blaze and Sonderjskye in the top league in Denmark. More notably he was on the top defensive unit for the Great Britain National Team in Slovenia where Giants Head Coach Doug Christiansen was very impressed with his play stating.

“Davey has all the tools. He is big, skates well, has good hands and wants to get better. I am not looking for him to be our top offensive d-man and he will ice significant minutes for the Giants next season. I expect him to play a smart simple game and be a big part of our defensive core.

My goal is for him is to be a better player next March than he is in September. I’m excited to work with him and help develop him.”

Originally Phillips came to Belfast from the Hull Stingrays when Steve Thornton was coaching. General Manager Todd Kelman knows what he is capable of doing for the Giants next season.

Smiling Steve Thornton

Todd Kelman

“When Davey came to us in 2008, he was only 21 years old and very raw. Over the course of the season, I saw him go from our 5th defenseman in the depth chart to the top defenseman on the team. He was our best penalty killer; he scored some huge goals for us and played his way into being our go to guy on defense in every situation.

I am extremely excited to get Davey back, he was a real fan favorite in Belfast when he was here the first time around and I know our supporters will be excited to have him back in a Giants jersey once again.”

Davey Philips playing for the Blackhawks during his trials with the Chicago NHL outfit

Phillips will wear the number 13, the same number he wore when he won two titles with the Belfast Giants during the 2008/09 season.

As usual the Giants recruitment drive is well underway with careful planning and research taking place before any hasty signings.

Written by Wayne Hardman

Dowd will be a hard act to follow!

Doug encouraging his players

Just returning from Slovenia whilst helping Team GB avoid relegation from their group, Doug Christiansen Belfast head coach comments “Giants hero Robert Dowd will be a hit in Sweden”.

Robert-Dowd

Continuing by stating. “We will bring the best player the Giants can recruit to the Odyssey Arena as a replacement for our 40-goal hit man. In my oppion Dowd was the best British player currently icing anywhere in this era.

Dowd’s goal scoring heroics in the Giants’ Elite League title success brought him to the attention of Swedish club Troja-Ljngby and they announced yesterday that the 23-year-old has signed a deal for next season.

“Robert is a special talent and I am extremely happy for him,” said Christiansen.

“He is a motivated individual and wants to continue his development as a player. He is a player that has a tremendous work ethic and I have no doubt that he will succeed in Sweden. I wish him nothing but the best. We will miss him in Belfast. We have already begun the search to add a talented British player to our line-up.” Concluded Christiansen

The big question remains. Who that will be remains to be seen, as there is a lack of top British talent available.

Former Giants captain Colin Shields has signed for the Sheffield Steelers, Bari McKenzie, who had a short spell at the Odyssey under Ed Courtenay, has joined the Cardiff Devils.

Ben O’Connor, who had signed a deal with Christiansen this time last year, is out of the equation too as he has re-signed for the club in Kazakhstan that the Giants released him to.

Written by Wayne Hardman

Santry Dublin twin pad Ice Rink

What an up hill struggle but its finally nearly their officially

The moth balling of the nearly new rink known as Dundalk Ice Dome meant it was Dundonald or the Odyssey Arena for Ice time for the Irish National Team in Northern Ireland.

Yes there were the occasional temporary winter rinks scatter around Ireland. Concurrently, there has been substantial work done with various teams participating in Inline hockey in locations such as Dublin, Drogheda, Dundalk, Kilkenny and Cork to name a few.

The IIHA conducted open Pick-Up Ice Hockey sessions regularly in both the Odyssey Arena and Dundonald Ice Rink in Belfast where the support provided to the IIHA by the management and staff of those facilities has been outstanding and greatly appreciated not forgetting the helping hand from Todd Kelman of the Belfast Giants

Recently a permanent ice rink has been under construction in the National Ice Sports Arena, Santry, Dublin. It will provide the Capital City, Dublin, and Ireland as a whole with an ice surface large enough to cater for ice hockey leagues.

New rink Santry Dublin

The IIHA’s Director of Player Operations, Will Fitzgerald, visited the National Ice Sports Arena to see how things are progressing as it reaches its final preparations. Prior to his visit some individuals were invited to view the facility for the first time, including representatives from the Dublin Ducks and Celtic Clovers who currently train and conduct Learn to Play sessions at Castleknock on Ice in Dublin.

On entering the facility the first thing that hits you about the rink is that its cold. That because the facility in Santry was a formerly a cold storage depot which is ideally suit as the basis for a permanent ice rink. The rink is being finalized by a number of engineers who have been flown in from Europe to complete the work and a number of dedicated individuals who have been working tirelessly for a number of months now.

Money hasn’t motivate this volunteer workers but more for the love of the sport and hunger for ice and are putting in many hours of hard labour in order to bring the rink to the point where it opens and ice hockey and figure skating can commence.

The IIHA and the Ice Skating Association of Ireland (ISAI) have been consulting with the operators of the facility, for a number of weeks about the scheduling of ice times and programs to be conducted there. The National Governing Bodies (IIHA and ISAI) are collaborating closely in order to ensure that each of the sports get the best possible use of the ice to both bodies satisfaction.

A number of weeks ago team representatives were invited to the rink and the IIHA is delighted to add another couple of clubs to that list which is related to notifying the Irish ice hockey community about all matters related to the sport, so welcome Ducks and Clovers.

So how long before the rink opens? Well, considering that final checks and tests are being conducted on the plant, connections and a lot more bits and technical pieces than the author is aware of, it is close, very close to opening to ice hockey and figure skating. As seen in the attach image the rink is now flooded and just awaiting the last bit of official signatures to open the facility to the general public.

Will Fitzgerald said ‘So much progress has been done in these last few months and that is testament to the financial commitment, hard work, long days and nights of those who are involved in the development of the National Ice Sports Arena’.

So, keep a close eye on these pages for those who fancy playing in Ireland. The time is very very near.

Written by Wayne Hardman

Belfast Giants players help both the Irish & GB Squads in their World Championships

Local, Belfast born Gareth Roberts recorded seven goals and the same number of assists to lead the scoring race in Turkey. He also picked up ‘Forward of the Tournament’ in the high altitude rink of Erzurum Turkey in the Div Three World Champions. He and the team beat Greece 5-3 then an 8-4 victory over Mongolia, which left them, tied for third place just missing out from the bronze medal on goal difference.

Number 24 Gareth Roberts scores during the Mongolia game

Irish head coach Kenny Redmond said, ‘I’m really proud of our team; we played with a lot of heart and great positional discipline. For me, we were the better team. We had chances to win all our games but didn’t the breaks to score”.

Ireland's Head Coach Kenny Redmond

Redmond had high praise for the tournament’s top scorer Gareth Roberts commenting, “Gareth has played great all tournament and has lead by example, and was unlucky not to score more against Mongolia”.

Kenny also talked about the long expected opening of Ireland’s Santry ice rink soon. As well, the solid performances from Scott Bickerstaff and Adam Pepper both in nets for Ireland this past week. Redmond said, “Both of these guys are young and are getting better. If we can have guys playing more games in structured leagues we have a bright future”.

Meanwhile in Ljubljana Slovenia Team GB not only had Robert Dowd and former Giant Colin Shields, who finished first and third in the scoring race, they also had a whole team effort to thank for an excellent tournament.

Giants-Robert-Penalty-Shot-Against-Hungary

When relegation from division 1A looked more likely the team dug deep gaining two wins to stay in the division.

GB Colin Shield celebrate scoring

Beating the Ukraine 4-3 and finally Hungry 5-4 kept Team GB in the hunt for next year with a fresh young group of players that can only get better.

In the crunch game of possible relegation from the group it was Dowd’s second goal of the game, a penalty shot that lifted Team GB just before the midway point of the third period and proved the crucial game-winning goal.

GB Head Coach Tony Hand

Head coach Tony Hand said, “I told them ‘play as if your lives depend on it’ and all credit to my guys, they battled hard and dug in. They were a credit to their country tonight and we’re very happy to stay in the pool.

I think it’s a great result and, because the pool was so tough this year, you don’t have your weaker teams at the bottom” he continued.

Hand finished his glowing report “For us it’s huge, because obviously we want to progress and if you go down there’s no guarantee of coming back up.” Concluded Hand.

Written by Wayne Hardman

Team GB gain their first win 4-3 over the Ukraine in overtime

Alex Pobyedonostsev put the Ukraine ahead early in the opening period which ended the scoring after the first twenty minutes of play in a very tight contest. However the second period proved to be a different high scoring style of play.

Robert Dowd

Robert Dowd got to work for team GB netting his first goal of the game to tie the score at 1-1.That goal encourage GB to produce more which the first came from Mathew Myers to give the squad a one goal lead. Dowd produced his second of the night to give his squad a two-goal cushion but were the Ukrainians finished.

Matt Meyers finds the winning shot

They answered that question with two goals of their own first from Kylmentyek then Pobyedonostsev netting his second of the game to tie it all up at 3-3 with a period left to play.

If the first two periods were tense the third was extra tight with neither team nor their respective goalies wanting to make the game ending mistaken that would lead to the winning goal being scored.

With neither team being able to find the winning shot during regulation time the game entered a five minute overtime period. It only took sixty-four seconds for Robert Dowd to find the back of the Ukrainians net scoring his third and GB’s winning goal of the game.

Robert Dowd scores a GB hat-trick including the winner in a 4-3 victory

A win for the Hand/Christiansen combination of coaches as Tony Hand was held up for most of the first two previous heart-breaking losses whilst icing for his teams losing appearance in the EPL final. Team GB can now look forward to move on to their next contest against Japan on Thursday with strong hopes for a possible bronze medal in the back of their minds.

Written by Wayne Hardman

                                 Team GB gets a rough ride from Austria

Austria vs. Great Britain 7-3 (3-0, 2-2, 2-1)

Austria also won its second game at the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A, 7-3 against Great Britain.

The eagles faced little challenge after scoring a 3-0 lead in the first half of the opening period. Gregor Baumgartner and Manuel Latusa each scored twice, Colin Shields netted a pair of goals for Great Britain.

Shields is on fire during the tournament

Thomas Hundertpfund opened the scoring at 7:48, defeating British goalie Stephen Murphy with a low on the stick side.

Two minutes later Great Britain invited Austria to score goals twice by losing the puck in the own zone.

At 9:12 Stephen Lee lost the puck to Baumgartner behind the net following a face-off. Baumgartner capitalised on the mistake for the 2-0 goal.

Only 25 seconds later it was already 3-0. Again the Austrians fought for the puck in the offensive zone.

Daniel Oberkofler won the battle at the boards and saw his shot deflected by the goalkeeper, but Latusa scored on the rebound.

Baumgartner’s second goal at 1:27 of the second period on a power play became the eventual game-winner.

“We controlled the play and forced them to do mistakes, but we know that we have to play better,” Austria head coach Manny Viveiros said.

“We score many goals, but we have to be more focused in our own zone. At this level you can’t sleep a minute, otherwise they score a goal.”

The British didn’t find a way to score in the first half of the game, but Shields hit the back of the net at 13:03.

Austria reacted immediately with a goal from Tratnig one-and-a-half minutes later.

With 97 seconds left in the middle stanza Shields scored his second goal of the day as his line outplayed the Austrian defence with two centering passes for the 5-2 score after 40 minutes.

The British fans at the arena remained positive about the possibility of a comeback in the third period, but Latusa took away hope when he completed a quick attack after three-and-a-half minutes with the 6-2 goal on a power play.

Austria ran into penalty trouble later on and Corey Neilson scored with a shot from the blueline midway through the period, but at 12:56 Herborger restored the four-goal lead on a breakaway for the 7-3 score.

The British were again coached by Doug Christiansen because head coach Tony Hand was battling as a player-coach with the Manchester Phoenix in the playoffs of the English Premiere Ice Hockey League, a minor league in Great Britain.

His team lost on Sunday against the Slough Jets and Hand hoped to be behind the bench for Great Britain’s second game, but he missed the connecting flight and landed in Ljubljana only midway through the game.

Doug in Action

Team GB has some time off before their next match and regroup after Tony Hand has now arrived in Slovenian

By Wayne Hardman

Team GB 2 vs. Slovenia 3

Great Britain put in a fantastic performance in their opening game at the World Championship (Division 1A) but were narrowly beaten 3-2 by hosts Slovenia.

Not forgetting that Slovenia, the much stronger outfit of the two squads, were relegated from the top flight Elite Division last season, were made to fight all the way by a gutsy GB side.

The hosts took the lead at through Ziga Jeglic, before former Giant, Colin Shields leveled for GB with assists going to Robert Dowd and Craig Peacock.

Craig Peacock

Rodman Celebrates Slovenian goal

Slovenia went ahead again thanks to David Rodman’s strike at for a 2-1 first-period lead and GB hit back at the start of the second period. Scorer turned provider, Colin Shields assisted on Peacock’s equalizer just over a minute into the middle stanza

Shields Roars

The game was tied at 2-2 going into the final session and GB once again matched their higher-ranked opponents but fell behind for a third time as Tomaz Razingar netted with four minutes left to play on the game clock.

2-2 during the GB vs Slovenian game

Tony Hand and Doug Christiansen threw their last roll of the dice pulling Stephen Murphy from the GB nets for an extra attacker. Sadly it didn’t make the difference as the GB squad went down to the odd goal in five

There was a healthy representation from this season’s Elite League Champions with nine current and former Belfast players and coaches competing in Slovenia in Division 1A World Championships.

Stephen Murphy in goal with Robert Dowd, Craig Peacock and Mark Garside on the ice coached by Doug Christiansen and former Giants Head Coach Tony Hand.

Additional former players included David Philips, Jeff Hutchins and Colin Shields.

Written by Wayne Hardman