Belfast Giants received a winning start of their Champions Hockey League campaign as a last-minute Equalizer and an overtime strike saw Finnish Kalpa Karpa Kuopio claim a 3-2 victory in the SSE Arena.
The home crowd had hardly settled before Patrick Grasso opened the score of just 53 seconds, his effort from a sharp angle that squeezed Patrik Kerkola.
Kalpa responded quickly, Jaakko Rissanen leveled the game at 3:51 by beating a rebound out of the shot of Saku Salmela. Both parties exchanged punishments, but remained bound after the first period.
The Giants saw the second period pushing to control. After they missed a 2-on-0 opportunity, they had a golden chance with a few Kalpa sentences, earning 12 seconds 5-on-3 Powerplay time. Nicolas Guay’s shot rattled the bar, but Ryan Smith was present to bury the rebound at 28:05 and to restore the lead.
Despite further opportunities, including a few 2-on-1 breaks, the Giants could not add to their advantage. Kalpa thought they were right about the buzzer, but after a long video assessment the goal was excluded.
In the last period, Alexis Gravel produced important stops while the Giants fought to protect their lead, where necessary threw bodies on the line, while Kerkola denied an agile tip on the other side. With the time that time was enclosed, Kalpa pulled their keeper and found an equalizer by Juuso Mäenpää, who forced the puck across the line with just 63 seconds.
Overtime brought a heartache for the Giants, while Gift Borchardt set up Patrick Curry to seal the game for Kalpa, only 1:20 in the extra frame.
Photo: William Cherry/Presseye
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