Giants: Legit Contenders?

Steve Thornton is out to prove that the Belfast Giants are true title contenders in tonight’s showdown with the league leading Sheffield Steelers.

The Giants, who trail the Steelers by six points with a game in hand, still have four more matches against Sheffield, beginning at the Odyssey Arena tonight.

Belfast were shutout 5-0 when the teams last met and after dropping more points in December Thornton knows that the Giants cannot afford to slip further behind.

“We’re coming through a tough spell and this is a game to show if we’re a legit title contender,” Thornton said in an interview with skysports.com.

“This is the biggest game of the year for us. A victory in this game puts us right back in contention for the league title after a few people had written us off when we went through a bad spell.

“We’ve dropped a little bit in the standings but the way we’re looking at it is that it’s still in our hands. We’ve still got a lot of games against the other contenders left.”

Thornton, who returns to duty tonight after serving a two-match ban for tripping Hull netminder Curtis Cruickshank, is preparing to face a Sheffield team that has only lost three games in regulation all season.

The Giants have been boosted by the recent return of star forward Paul Deniset, who scored the overtime winner against the Stingrays on Sunday and leads the team with 45 points.

“Sheffield don’t seem to be dropping a lot of points against other teams so if we’re going to catch them we can’t rely on others,” Thornton added.

“There’s a lot of time left, but home games are really important and with Deniset and myself back we’ve only got Andrew Martin missing from the line-up and we like our chances.”

Martin has only iced in 19 games this season and has been sidelined with a leg injury for over a month. The Canadian forward attempted a comeback in mid-December, but had not fully recovered and has been out since.

“Andrew’s had an MRI and the results came back similar to what we expected,” Thornton said.

“He’s got a high ankle sprain, a little bit of ligament damage and some swelling in the joint, which is a tough hockey injury.

“Hockey players would almost prefer to have a break than that. It’s one of those things that if you come back too quickly from it you can re-injure yourself.”

Wilson talks Team GB

With only two days remaining until Team GB face Poland to begin their mission to qualify for Vancouver 2010, Newcastle Vipers coach Rob Wilson has said that depth up front will give the national side the edge they need.

In an interview with skysports.com, Wilson said that the team’s ability to rotate four forward units will be the key to success.

“Going to Poland is not going to be easy,” he said.

“There are going to be some tough teams over there, but I like how our team is put together. I think that for the first time in a long time we’re going to be able to play four very strong lines with some good hockey players.”

Two players from Wilson’s Vipers squad have been called up to play in the tournament – defenceman Jez Lundin and forward David Longstaff.

Longstaff is one of five Team GB players in the top 15 for individual points scoring in the Elite League.

“We’ve got the likes of Longstaff, Steve Thornton, Colin Shields, Greg Chambers, Greg Owen and Ashley Tait – there’s some pretty good offence there,” Wilson added.

“If we can get some good play around them, some solid goaltending and our defence step up we’ll have the offence to win some games so I think it will be interesting to see how we do.”