Stephen Murphy announced his return to the Belfast Giants line-up last night with a man-of-the-match performance and his first shut-out for the club.
The Scottish goaltender’s display also helped the Giants record their first home win of the season, although it came at the Dundonald Ice Bowl rather than the Odyssey Arena.
Murphy hasn’t been available to coach Steve Thornton since the opening game of the season as he continued his rehabilitation following an operation in the summer, but he showed no sign of any problems as he pulled out all the stops to deny the Hull Stingrays over and over again.
Thornton was also back in the line-up after injury and he was only just eclipsed by Murphy’s performance in which he saved all 30 shots the Stingrays threw at him.
That meant with four goals being fired in at the other end, the Giants romped to their biggest win of the season.
Thornton was in for captain George Awada, who sat out the game with a shoulder problem and the coach will now have to weigh up a decision over imports in the team, with the rules allowing only 10 of the 11 he has on the roster to play on the same night.
The Giants got going early and opened the scoring in the fourth minute as Craig Peacock smashed the puck past Tommy Sandahl.
Murphy’s fellow Scot Colin Shields did the damage at the other end while he was getting glove on rubber every time.
Shields netted twice in the second period, first on 23 minutes when set up by Brandon Benedict and then for the second time just over four minutes from the second break when he fired home from the blueline.
Four minutes into the final period Shields returned the favour for Benedict to complete the rout and give the Giants a confidence- boosting victory.
The problem for the Giants, however, is that they only have one league game in the next two-and-a-half weeks, giving them little opportunity to build up momentum.
They head to Edinburgh this weekend where they will meet the Hamilton Bulldogs of the American Hockey League in the Gardiner Cup, a competition that the players and Thornton are relishing.
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