Rink Round-Up: Week 8

Welcome once more to another Rink Round-Up, your weekly look back at the remainder of the Elite League action that didn't feature the Steelers.

Our eighth look back started on Wednesday night when a short benched Edinburgh Capitals played the first of two successive away games in as many nights. Their first stop was the Sky Dome in Coventry, and it ended up with a comprehensive win for the home side as they skated away to a 7-1 win. Seven different players tallied for Danny Stewart's men, whilst Callum Boyd was the sole Capitals scorer. The biggest talking point of the night came late in the first period when Blaze's Danick Paquette and Capitals netminder (yes we said that correctly) Pavel Shegalo traded a few shots after the former had clashed with a Capitals outskater; Paquette also picking up a match penalty for his troubles.

The following night things didn't improve much for the Scottish club as they shipped another seven goals; this time at Milton Keynes. The game started positively for the visitors as Marek Tvrdon scored his third of the season at 4:37 but this was the only time that they managed to lead. With the game entering it's final twenty minutes, it was delicately poised with the home side 4-2 ahead but they then kicked on to score three times in that final period with both Christian Isackson and Francois Verreault-Paul both completing doubles for Pete Russell's men.

Onto Saturday now, the Capitals completed a depressing three games in four nights as they were shut out 9-0 by leaders Manchester Storm. Former New York Ranger Dane Byers led the way with a hat-trick whilst there were doubles for Mike Hammond and captain Jay Rosehill; Luke Moffatt and Matt Stanisz also lit the lamp for Ryan Finnerty's men. Despite losing Sebastian Sylvestre to a match penalty for apparent head butting, Belfast Giants recovered from a 3-0 deficit to defeat Braehead in Renfrew with Jonathan Ferland scoring the game winning goal just 41 seconds before the end of overtime and causing Clan coach John Tripp to lose his temper with the officials; picking up a misconduct and game misconduct at the conclusion.

Also winning 4-3 in overtime were the Nottingham Panthers against Milton Keynes. Lightning, featuring former Panthers netminder Miika Wiikman in between the pipes, led 3-1 with 29:49 played and it looked like a winning return for the Swede. Yet Corey Neilson's men bounced back, and Matt Phillips' second of the night with 1:31 played in the extra time secured the points for the home side. Guildford made their long trip to Dundee worthwhile too, as Rhett Rachinski scored at 60:59 for a 3-2 win on Tayside. Finally Saturday saw the Cardiff Devils all but secure their place in the Challenge Cup quarter final stage with a 7-2 win over the visiting Coventry Blaze at Ice Arena Wales; Joey Martin scoring twice as the Devils netted four powerplay goals from seven attempts.

Sunday's action saw Manchester slip to a 3-2 loss at Milton Keynes; Lightning new signing Tommy Mele scoring what turned out to be the game winner 16 seconds from the end of the second period. Belfast had to work hard for the points at Murrayfield with Jim Vandermeer's powerplay strike at 53:15 for a 4-3 win which broke the Capitals' stubborn resistance who also featured 18 year old Jordan McLaughlin in between the pipes. Also having to work hard for a win were Cardiff in Kirkcaldy as they edged past the Flyers, 5-3. Paul Crowder's second of the night with 76 seconds left finally seeing off the Fife challenge.

In the Midlands derby, two Brett Perlini strikes in the second period were enough to see the Panthers see off the Blaze by the odd goal in five and new Danish netminder Patrick Galbraith (yes we know that Galbraith sounds more Scottish than it does Danish) made 43 saves from 45 shots as Danny Stewart will be scratching his bald head to wonder why his team finished pointless that Sunday. Yet in the other game, we had a rare non-result as Guildford and their visitors Dundee saw their game be called off after one period of action with the teams locked at 2-2 when referee Michael Hicks ruled that due to an ice fault, particularly concentrated near the team benches, the game had to be abandoned.

And that's your round-up.

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