Giants blow as Ferland hit by three-game ban

BELFAST Giants forward Jonathan Ferland has been banned by the Elite League’s Department of Player Safety for a second time this season.

And the team’s equipment manager, Jason Ellery, has also been slapped with a suspension following last Sunday night’s dramatic overtime victory against the Cardiff Devils.

Eight weeks after being handed a two-match suspension for a checking to the head offence, Ferland has now picked up a three-match ban after being deemed guilty of checking from behind, with the DOPS deeming the offence to be reckless and determining that after changing his skating position Ferland was therefore responsible for refraining from any contact from behind.

He will miss this weekend’s trip to Milton Keynes Lightning and the Guildford Flames, as well as next Saturday’s match against Manchester Storm.

Ellery will be missing from the bench for the first two of those matches after the DOPS found him guilty of making “comments that have been determined to be abusive and detrimental to the conduct of the game”, following an incident late in the third period of Sunday’s match.

It is the first time that Ellery has ever been hit with disciplinary charges in 14 years with the Giants, but the DOPS came down hard on him and determined that “the equipment manager’s role does NOT include verbal content directed at opposing players”.