Elite League round-up December 11
8:56pm Monday 12th December 2011 in News By Nigel McFarlane
Elite League round-up December 11
ELITE LEAGUE ICE HOCKEY:
Round up of Sunday's games in the Elite Ice Hockey League.
Edinburgh Capitals 7 Hull Stingrays 6 (After Penalty Shootout)
A goal fest in Edinburgh with no fewer than 12 goals to entertain the fans but in the end a shootout was required to decide the outcome, with Capitals Jiri Hanzal grabbing the winning shot in the first sudden death round of shots.
The visitors had earlier made a flying start, going 2 goals up inside 5 minutes, with Derek Campbell at 2.31 and Sam McCluskey at 4.19 on the powerplay counting. Stingrays failed to build on that lead however and at 12.07 Marcis Zembergs pulled one back for Capitals.
Only 10 seconds into period 2 and Campbell scored his second of the night (and 100th all time EIHL goal) to give Stingrays a 3-1 lead but that only inspired Capitals to hit a purple patch and they scored 3 without reply through Rene Jarolin at 24.24, Sean Menton at 28.37 and Zembergs again at 31.44 on the powerplay to turn the game their way.
This game was totally unpredictable however and before the period end Stingrays had scored twice more through a Jereme Tendler double at 33.26 and 35.57 to see his side lead 5-4.
Right on cue the third period brought another complete turnaround with Capitals edging ahead with strikes by Richard Hartmann 37 seconds in and then Hanzal at 43.11, only for Tendler to complete a straight hat trick with the game tying goal for Stingrays at 47.22 on the powerplay.
The biggest surprise was that ended the scoring in regulation and indeed overtime and therefore to a shootout we went and after Tendler and Zembergs had counted in the opening rounds it was left to Hanzal to fire in the winning shot and end a real thriller.
Sheffield Steelers 4 Braehead Clan 3 (After Overtime)
It was their third game in 3 nights but title chasing Steelers again found a way to win, despite being under severe pressure from Clan for the majority of this contest. The home hero was new signing Frank Trudal with the winning strike in overtime, this after Clan had pulled back from 3-1 down after two periods and had looked the likely winners as the game wore on The home side had got off to a great start and led after only 47 seconds with a goal by Mike Ramsay and then it was 2-0 after only 3.08 with Jeff Legue scoring. Clan recovered well after that but, already icing without player/coach Drew Bannister, they suffered another blow when Kyle Bruce was injured during a fight with Steelers Colt King in the 17th minute and was gone for the remainder of the game.
The second period saw Clan start to turn the screw and Jim Jorgensen pulled one back at 23.38 on the powerplay. Despite outshooting Steelers by 15 to 7 in the period the visitors were unable to find the tying goal at that point and late on Steelers went 3-1 in front with a powerplay effort by skipper Jonathan Phillips at 38.43.
Clan really upped the pace against a tiring Steelers in the third period but John DeCaro was immense between the home pipes until Jordan Krestanovich scored a second for Clan at 48.20. More Clan pressure after that with the inevitable game tying goal arriving at 55.00 as Jorgensen scored his second of the game.
Steelers survived until overtime then seemed to gain an extra jump in the extended time, culminating in Trudal firing in the winner after 1.28 of overtime.
Challenge Cup Group A
Dundee Stars 7 Fife Flyers 1
It may have been a meaningless Challenge Cup group A game for both sides but the big win for Stars surely will give them a boost following a tough week for the club with player/coach Dan Ceman being released and Brent Hughes taking over that role.
In truth however Flyers were minus both key defenceman Matt Cohen and utility man Danny Stewart and it was never going to be anything other than a long night from the side from Kirkcaldy.
The contest was effectively over after the opening period when Stars built up a 3-0 lead. It took only 37 seconds for A J McLean to open Stars account and further goals came from John Dolan at 2.59 and Chris Zarb at 8.49.
Stars added a couple more in the second period to go nap with strikes from Brennan Turner at 27.36 and Ross McIntosh at 30.16.
Chris Whitley lost his shutout at 47.10 when Mike Hamilton scored for Flyers but back came Stars and efforts by McLean at 52.03 and Jeff Hutchins at 52.21 rubbed in the misery for Flyers but gave the home support some cheer after that tough week.
