Giants have what it takes to bag another prize, insists Keefe
ADAM Keefe doesn’t want tonight’s clash with the Cardiff Devils to be the last time that his Belfast Giants team faces the Welsh side this season.
Instead, the Giants head coach is targeting one more showdown with the newly crowned Elite League champions — in the last match of the campaign and with more silverware on the line.
After beating the Devils to win the Challenge Cup earlier this month, Keefe is hungry for a big climax to the season with a battle against Cardiff in the play-off final in two weeks’ time.
“I want to play Cardiff in the play-offs,” said Keefe, ahead of tonight’s trip to face the Devils.
“They have one trophy, we have one trophy and I would like to play them for the third.
“I don’t want to look past our last two games of the regular season this weekend and the quarter-finals, but it would be a big game against Cardiff.”
After slipping behind Manchester Storm in the race for second place in the league table, the Giants need to win at least one of their closing weekend games — first against Cardiff before a home clash against the Dundee Stars tomorrow — to finish third.
With only three points separating the third-placed Gi- ants and the Nottingham Panthers, who are in seventh, Easter weekend’s play-off quarter-final match-ups won’t be known until after tomorrow’s games.
“We can’t predict the play-offs because there is so little between the teams,” said Keefe.
The Giants will face this weekend’s matches without defenceman Jim Vandermeer. The former NHL-er only returned from injury for Wednesday night’s 10-4 win over Milton Keynes Lightning and has been hit with a twomatch suspension after clashing with Francis Verreault-Paul.
The Elite League’s Department of Player Safety stated: “(Jim) Vandermeer is clearly the instigator and aggressor in this incident.”