The Belfast Giants will appeal the nine-game suspension handed out by the Elite League to their player/coach Steve Thornton after an incident in last Sunday’s game against the Newcastle Vipers, which means he will be available for tonight’s clash against the Edinburgh Capitals at the Odyssey Arena (face-off 7pm).

In a statement issued yesterday, by the club said: “The incident involving Vipers player Andre Payette originally resulted in a double minor penalty (2+2) for high sticking.

“After Sunday’s game, the Vipers requested a formal review of the incident resulting in the original penalty being upgraded to a Match Penalty for Slashing, automatically resulting in a one game ban. The further eight games was because the slash was seen to be to the head/neck area and for reckless use of the stick.”

Two Newcastle players received a single game each for fighting despite the fact that the Vipers had run up 174 minutes of penalties in three games against the Giants this season, including nine major penalties.

Until the appeal is heard Thornton did not want to talk about the incident. Rather, he was fully focused on the games this weekend.

“I’ve had individual meetings with the players this week and I’ve emphasised that we have to win games despite injuries or suspensions. There can be no excuses.

“I think we have the depth and the cover on our team to play well. We’ve been playing two guys down because of injuries and we’ve been winning games, we have guys who are comfortable filling in, in different roles so everything is still very positive,” explained Thornton.

“We came together as a team very early in the season; guys have bought into the systems. When I recruited the team I wanted leaders and mature players and the one thing we all decided was not to worry about anything that aren’t within our control.

“I don’t know what will happen with the appeal but we’ll just be taking things a game at a time. Teams that want to win something have to battle through adversity. I don’t want to put a positive spin on it but in some ways it can be character-building.

“We will not be going into a rink thinking we’ve already lost because we know that if we bring our ‘A’ game we can play with anybody.” Malcolm MacMillan and Andrew Martin remain out of the line-up this weekend because of injuries but will be back next week which will soften the blow if Thornton loses the appeal.