Belfast's Brandon Benedict and Brian Lee battle for possession

Belfast Giants were held to a draw in front of a capacity Odyssey crowd in Saturday night's first leg of the Elite League play-off quarter-final.

Jeff Mason gave the hosts the lead at 17:22 but they held the advantage for just a minute as Greg Owen equalised.

Jon Gleed restored Belfast's lead at the end of the first period before Sean Selmser struck for Coventry at 23:13 to make it 2-2.

The return leg is on Sunday at the Coventry Skydome.

The winners on aggregate will progress to the Final Four weekend in Nottingham on 2 and 3 April.

Doug Christiansen's side out-shot their opponents 39-17 but were guilty of wasting many good opportunities.

The Giants also lost Mark Garside to a shoulder injury.

The final game at the Odyssey Arena this season was played in front of a crowd of 6,588, the largest to watch the Giants play since 2002.

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