Rink Round-Up: Week 4

Welcome to the fourth edition this week of Frozen Steel Blog's Rink Round-Up: our look back at the rest of the Elite League.

On Wednesday night whilst Steelers were edging past Milton Keynes in Ice Sheffield, Cardiff made the long trip to Dundee looking to bounce back from a 6-1 loss on home ice to Manchester just three days before. And that's exactly what they did as they shut out their hosts 4-0 in the DIA. Three first period goals did all the damage early doors thanks to former Stars captain Justin Faryna, a powerplay goal from Matthew Myers and one from Patrick Asselin. Layne Ulmer scored a fourth late in the third period as Ben Bowns picked up a 23 shot shutout. 

In the NIC, Belfast Giants took an early lead through Darcy Murphy but three unanswered goals had the Panthers 3-1 ahead after twenty minutes play. The second period saw the scoring continue as the teams were locked at 4-4 going into the final minute of the period. With 41 seconds left on the buzzer, Robert Farmer pocketed Panthers fifth of the night and it was enough to stand up as the game winner as Panthers picked up the points.

There was a surprise on Saturday in the "O" as the visiting Edinburgh Capitals recorded a stunning 6-4 road win on their hosts in the Challenge Cup. Belfast gave a rare start to third choice netminder Andrew Dickson but you can only beat what it's front of you. Marek Tvrdon scoring twice and Sergei Banashkov the empty netter to seal the deal in a game that had just 8 penalty minutes called. Also in the Challenge Cup there were 3-2 wins for both the Panthers and the Lightning over Manchester and Guildford respectively, game winning goals coming from Yann Sauvé and Guillaume Doucet for both home sides. In the same competition, Dundee suffered a heavy 5-1 loss at Fife from whom Charlie Mosey scored twice for in a three goal opening period burst.

In the sole other Elite League game, Cardiff recorded their second successive shutout and win as they defeated Braehead 5-0 in Ice Arena Wales. Mark Richardson netted twice and there were goals also for Josh Batch, Sean Bentivoglio and Justin Faryna; whilst Ben Bowns saved every single one of the 23 efforts that the Clan landed on him.

Going into Sunday, there were three other Elite League games besides Blaze-Steelers and a solitary Challenge Cup one. Looking at the latter first, Dundee bounced back from their two game losing streak with a 5-1 win over the visiting Lightning. Tyler Brickler picked up 2+1 as the visitors were halted and saw both former Steeler Ashley Tait and Francis Verreault-Paul ejected by referee Pavel Halas before the end.

Onto league play, two late third period goals from Paul Swindlehurst and captain Jay Rosehill saw Manchester Storm overturn Jonathan Ferland's goal for Belfast in the Storm Shelter and record a 2-1 win for the hosts. Guildford Flames came out in a 13 goal game at the Spectrum against the Clan 8-5, despite Clan player-assistant coach Brendan Brooks scoring 57 second third period natural hat-trick. Finally, a 3+1 tally from Evan Bloodoff helped Fife complete a four point weekend as they defeated hosts Edinburgh 7-3 at Murrayfield. 

And that's your weekly round-up.

Thanks for reading guys. If you want to get involved please contact us on Twitter or find us on Facebook and like us and leave a comment:-

@FrozenSteelBlog
@FrozenSteelMNL
@FrozenSteelJr
@BTI_Podcast
@hockeybhoy
@Disgu15ed
@SedgyFergus
@georgefbarber

Check out Breaking The Ice Available to listen and download on iTunes and SoundCloud.
Or Email the team at Frozen Steel

You can also get involved in Steelers related discussions by joining the forums at Steel Talk