Elite League round-up December 18
12:06am Monday 19th December 2011 in Sport By Nigel McFarlane
Elite League round-up December 18
ELITE LEAGUE ICE HOCKEY:
Round up of Sunday's games in the Elite Ice Hockey League.
Coventry Blaze 7 Edinburgh Capitals 2
After a slow start Blaze burned the Capitals severely with a second and third period blitz that the Scots side had no answer to, giving Paul Thompson’s men a 4-point weekend and a 5th straight league win.
The opening period had certainly belonged to the visitors however and they seemed to take control of the game scoring twice without reply. A double from Marcis Zembergs at 2.29 and 12.21 on the powerplay was the difference at the opening period break.
Blaze piled on the pressure in the 2nd period but it took them until 27.50 to pull one back when Dustin Wood fired home on the powerplay and the same player added a 2nd strike with the man-advantage at 30.28 to level. Fired up Blaze then continued their purple patch to score twice more before the end of the period through Robert Farmer at 33.45 and Owen Fussey at 36.36 and even had the luxury of seeing a penalty shot by Woo-Sang Park saved by Nathan Craze in the Capitals net in the 38th minute.
A more low key 3rd period perhaps but Blaze were well and truly in command and they added further goals by Frantisek Bakrlik at 50.22, Matic Kralj at 53.40 and finally Mike McLean shorthanded at 58.47 to round off a good weekend in front of another big crowd at the Skydome - just what the doctor ordered for Blaze at this difficult time for the club.
Dundee Stars 1 Braehead Clan 7
Impressive Clan skated to their biggest road win of the season with Stars falling to the ground rapidly after last night taking league leading Belfast all the way.
A treble for the EIHL top points scorer Jade Galbraith led the way as Clan picked up only their 3rd league win on the road this season but Stars’ miserable home run continues – now 5 straight regular season losses.
Early scoring in this one had firstly Galbraith opening for Clan after 4.03 but on the powerplay Jeff Hutchins levelled 51 seconds later. The game was pretty even throughout the opening period but the sharpness in front of goal from the visitors was clear to see and at 19.01 they edged ahead again when skipper Jordan Krestanovich fired in.
Clan completely killed off Stars in the middle session, scoring 4 times without reply. Galbraith grabbed his 2nd at 24.20, Adam Walker broke clear to score at 27.11, Jim Jorgensen saw Clan go nap at 29.40 and Krestanovich scored his 2nd at 36.47 to leave Clan 6-1 ahead after 2 periods.
With the game effectively over the intensity reduced but Clan did add their final goal of the night at 52.19 – Galbraith counting his hat trick to round of a great night for Drew Bannister’s side.
Fife Flyers 5 Sheffield Steelers 6 (After Overtime)
A remarkable game in Kirkcaldy as title chasing Steelers came back from the dead and a 5-1 deficit with less than 17 minutes remaining to take the game into an overtime period in which they then claimed the extra point.
No one could have anticipated how this came was going to pan out when the teams went in tied at 0-0 after the opening period but the home side then had their best period of hockey this season as they built up a 4-1 lead. A powerplay strike by Matt Siddall set them on their way at 22.00 and then player/coach Todd Dutiaume made it 2-0 at 26.22. Remarkably it was 3-0 at 34.50 when Toms Hartmanis found the net only for Steelers own player/coach Ryan Finnerty to get his side on the board at 36.11.
Flyers were far from finished however and with 17 seconds of the period remaining Siddall scored his 2nd for 4-1 Flyers.
When Hartmanis scored his 2nd at 43.35 to shoot Flyers 5-1 ahead it signalled to removal of John DeCaro from the Steelers cage to be replaced by Geoff Woolhouse –and it also signalled the beginning of an amazing recovery by the visitors. At 44.32 Luke Fulghum pulled a goal back, on the powerplay 18 seconds later Steve Birnstill made it 5-3, at 47.25 another powerplay goal for Steelers from Fulghum made it a 1-goal game and then with time running out it was tied at 57.04 when Jeff Legue fired home to shatter the home side.
With all the momentum going Steelers way it was inevitable that they would see this through and only 31 seconds into overtime it was Mark Thomas who claimed his second overtime winner of the season to end an epic encounter.
That’s eight straight league wins now for Steelers, five of them in overtime.
Hull Stingrays 3 Cardiff Devils 5
A 3rd period surge by the visiting Devils ensured they completed a 4-point weekend and a 3rd straight win but for Stingrays the slump goes on – now 7 losses on the bounce.
Devils had more of the play in the opening period but could not shake of the home side. Both teams scored late on with Kenton Smith firing Devils ahead at 17.13 on the powerplay only for Jereme Tendler to level for Stingrays 31 seconds later and then Dominic Osman edged the home side ahead with only 9 seconds of the period remaining The 2nd session saw Devils tie it up after 63 seconds with Phil Hill on target but Tendler – on a hot scoring streak right now – shot Stingrays ahead again at 25.33.
That’s how it remained to the end of the second period, with clearly all to play for in the third session.
Devils took the initiative early on and tied it at three after only 4.22 with a counter from skipper Stuart Macrae on the powerplay. The visitors were now going for it and at 50.28, again on the powerplay it was Chris Frank who scored what proved to be the game winner with Scott Matzka scoring the insurance goal at 57.35
