Darryl Lloyd netted a second successive hat-trick as the Belfast Giants hit a magnificent seven against Braehead Clan last night to complete the first part of what they hope will be a post-Christmas double against their Scottish rivals.

Fresh from scoring a treble in Friday night's 6-0 victory over the Edinburgh Capitals, Lloyd maintained his hot run of form — with his goal tally for the season almost doubled in the space of just four days.

After losing Benoit Doucet to a season ending injury and Brock McBride's departure to Slovenia, coach Doug Christiansen challenged his other forwards to step up and deliver more goals and Lloyd has met that demand head-on.

Now Christiansen will send his team out with instructions to do just the same again this evening, when the Clan arrive at the Odyssey Arena for part two.

Graeme Walton — who has started scoring himself to make up for the loss of others — struck the first goal after seven minutes and although Jade Galbraith levelled a couple of minutes later the Giants ended the first period in front thanks to a good goal from Adam Keefe.

The Giants began to slip through the gears in the second period and extended their advantage through captain Jeremy Rebek — on the powerplay — and Craig Peacock, but Clan kept things interesting when James Jorgensen skated forward from his defensive position to make it 4-2 with a powerplay strike of his own.

That, however, was as good as it got for the home side as Lloyd put his impressive stamp on the game.

He scored his first with two-and-a-half minutes of the second period to go and then hit number two just 81 seconds into the third.

Lloyd then made absolutely sure that there would be no comeback from Clan when he completed his hat-trick midway through the third period.