Belfast Giants 2 Phoenix 5.

Another hat-trick from David-Alexandre Beauregard together with a goal and three assists for Tony Hand saw the Manchester Phoenix chalk up a notable victory over the Belfast Giants last night.

Tony Hand made changes to his lines for the Friday night match-up in the Odyssey Arena against the Belfast Giants, moving Kyle Bruce onto the line with himself and David Beauregard and slotting Luke Fulghum alongside Lucas Burnett and Alex Ward, with Bruce Mulherin still missing through injury.

The opening period saw twenty minutes of entertaining hockey with both netminders, Stevie Lyle of the Giants and Stephen Murphy of the Phoenix both on top form and demonstrating why they vie with each other for the starting role on the GB National squad. Belfast enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges with Murphy making good saves from Cheverie and Awada, but the Phoenix hit back and Lyle showed his mettle with a super save to deny Tony Hand. Lyle again came to the Giants rescue on a Phoenix powerplay as he stood firm to turn away efforts from both Hand and Kyle Bruce. The period ended with Murphy making an excellent save from Giants defenceman Dave Phillips on a full-blooded blast from the slot.

More of the same in the first half of the second session with Murphy excelling with a double save from Tyler Howells before Lyle did likewise with a crucial double save at close range.

Belfast opened the scoring in the 32nd minute as leading scorer Paul Deniset was on hand to squeeze home a rebound after Murphy spilled a shot from Steve Thornton. Over confidence by the Giants saw Shane Johnson stray too far forward and just 55 seconds later the Phoenix were level as the extra space with Johnson way out of position saw Kyle Bruce feed Tony Hand in the slot and he gave Lyle no chance.

A very even game swung the Giants way with a freak goal in the 37th minute as Colin Shields speculatively shot the puck to the net from wide on the left side of the goal line and it hit Murphy on the back of his right leg to deflect into the net, to send the home side into the second break with a narrow lead.

If the Giants had had the lions share of the possession and chances through the first two periods, the third period saw the Phoenix put on a clinic of ruthless finishing.

Lyle made three early saves as the Phoenix started the session at breakneck pace, but the goalie was helpless to prevent the equaliser in the 44th minute as Tony Hand found Beauregard in space on the edge of the crease to score with ease. Six minutes later on a Phoenix powerplay, two great passes, first from Dwight Parrish to find Hand and then from the player/coach to find Beauregard again saw the Phoenix ahead for the first time. And the inevitable hat-trick marker came in the 53rd minute as Hand again picked out the deadly French Canadian Beauregard and he simply doesn’t miss gilt-edged chances like that. Phoenix wrapped up an excellent result with the last-minute empty-netter as Kyle Bruce found Nathan Ward to make it a 5-2 scoreline.

A Phoenix spokesperson said: "We knew they’d come out hard early on as they wanted to kill the game off early. Our primary job was to slow them down and make them work hard for anything they were to get. They’ve had a couple of injuries and we needed to make them tire and they did.

"Our guys played one of if not their best road game of the season so far, this result is up there with the win in Nottingham for the professional way they went about their work."

Phoenix travel to Cardiff next for a 7.00pm face-off against the Devils tonight.