Now, however, Adam Keefe team need to do it all over again when they meet the same opponents in Scotland on Sunday.
The goals were a long time coming in the Giants 3-1 win, with the main action coming in the middle period before the final empty-net goal late on.
The wait didn’t matter though when the close to sell out crowd clapped their team through most of the final minute when Glasgow continued to play without a goaltender and their net became a target for anyone who could shoot on sight.
That was when the precision in their shooting deserted the Giants, although by then it didn’t matter so much.
The patience was needed from the start.
Indeed it was an incident right at the end of a first period that saw Glasgow’s Hugo Roy and Deven Sideroff denied by Jackson Whistle and JJ Piccinich ring the pipework at the other end, which had the first major impact on the game, albeit belated.
Karl Boudrais was call for a high sticking offence right in front of the Giants goal in the final minute before the first break and the Giants managed to see things through to the end of the period. When play restarted, however, Glasgow clicked straight into gear and 43 seconds in Brayden Burke put the puck straight into the path of Tristan Langan, who finished from an acute angle on the right.
That’s when the Giants patience was really tested.
The reward for staying calm eventually came at 28.34, although not by the Giants making, but through a Clan mistake. An attempted clearance had already gone wrong when Richard Jarusek tried to turn with the puck inside his own zone. He only managed to turn into Ben Lake, who then pushed the puck forward for Scott Conway and he cracked home the equaliser from close range.
Finally the Giants were in a flow and that peaked with the go-ahead goal on a powerplay right on the 35 minute mark.
The pass from Gabe Bast was superb, right onto Marcus Eriksson’s stick and after taking one touch to open up the angle he sent his shot into the top corner of the net – just about the only spot not covered by goaltender Sami Aittokallio.
With just a one-goal lead it was still anyone’s game.
Jordan Kawaguchi was close to stretching the lead with a shot from a tight angle that was kept out by a combination of replacement goaltender Lucas Brine and the pipes.
It also meant that Whistle was still needed at the other end and after saving from Langan he did superbly well to stretch out his stick and sweep the puck back into his possession.
Even when the Giants benefited from a five-on-three powerplay the momentum was lost when repairs were needed to plexi glass behind the goal.
In the end it came down to Giants captain David Goodwin to finally settle the nerves with a superbly accurate shot from deep in the Giants zone into the empty net with just 1.16 to go that completed the victory.