Giants 'up against a beast' in Steelers final - Keefe
Belfast Giants head coach Adam Keefe said his side have had their eyes opened to how they must play to succeed in Sunday's Elite League Play-Offs final against the Sheffield Steelers (17.00 BST).
Their opposition in Nottingham are chasing a treble, while the Giants finished some 20 points behind them in the league standings.
Keefe's side still have the chance to end the season with a trophy, however, after overcoming the Cardiff Devils 2-1 in an over-time thriller in their Saturday night semi-final.
Despite the gap between the sides in the standings, Keefe believes splitting the pair of games with the Steelers during the last weekend of the regular season has shown his squad the level of performance required.
"We're up against a beast in the Sheffield Steelers," he said.
"They won the league by 20 points on us. That's a very dangerous and consistent team offensively. We've seen the wrath of that, in Sheffield in particular.
"However, the last two games, I know Sheffield had already won the league, but our guys showed a little something.
"I think that was an eye-opener for our own group of how we have to play to have success. I thought we did that [against Cardiff] and I think we're going to have to do it again."
At the end of an inconsistent season, the Giants entered the play-offs with some real momentum.
Keefe added that the pressure to secure their spot during the campaign's final weeks stood to them in a tense semi-final ultimately won thanks to a sudden death goal from Greg Printz.
"You look at that game and how we managed it, fending off an offence like Cardiff's until they got that power play in the third period, I thought the guys were great," he said.
"Cardiff are a good hockey team and I thought the guys managed the game as well as they could have.
"I think the preparation against Coventry [in the quarter-finals], the fact that four of the last five games of the season were against Cardiff and Sheffield, our guys have had to play like that to have any success.
"Everyone stuck together and got the job done."
