Devils at Capitals 6.1.13

3rd Jan 2013 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

The Devils make the long trip up to Edinburgh to take on the resurgent Capitals on Sunday this weekend, this will be the third meeting between the two clubs this season with the series currently standing at  1 all.

December has been terrific for the Capitals who came away with 13 points from a possible 18. It’s also a month that has seen an increase in crowds at Murray field with 1430 attendance for their Hogmanay clash against Fife.
Looking at their last few games the Capitals were in action against local rivals the Clan on the 29th of December away and the Fife Flyers on the 31st at home.

Starting on Saturday in Braehead the game’s first period saw End to end action with both teams coming close to opening the scoring. The visitors got on the score board first with a strike from Rene Jarolin at 9.26. This lead was short lived as the Clan got back on level terms at 10.04 as Robert Farmer was on hand to score.

The Clan got their third powerplay of the game at the start of the second period and they made this one count as Ash Goldie put them in front at 22.25. The hosts opened up a two goal lead at 25.46 as Steve Birnstill fired home. Capitals player/coach Richard Hartmann cut the deficit to a single goal as he netted at 29.15.

The game was all square at 46.47 as Jarolin netted his second of the game. With the Clan on their fourth powerplay of the night Martin Cingel broke away to net shorthanded at 50.37 to put the Capitals back in front. This turned out to be the game winner, the Clan pulled the goaltender with just over a minute to go, but they were unable to find a way past Hiadlovsky who turned away 38 of the 41 shots he faced.

Braehead Clan 3 - 4 Edinburgh Capitals

Next up the Capitals faced the Flyers at home on the 31st of December  where the Scottish derby was played in front of a bumper Murrayfield crowd and did not disappoint as both teams skated in determined fashion in what was the final Elite League game of the year.

A frantic opening to the game was no surprise and it was Capitals who took the lead with a goal by Peter Holecko at 6.34 on the powerplay. An incident at 13.07 saw Capitals defenceman Michal Dobron ejected on a 5+game for boarding on Flyers Danny Stewart but the visitors were unable to take advantage of the powerplay opportunity and a feisty session ended with that single goal separating the sides.

Period two saw Flyers tie the game at 25.20 with Bobby Chaumont on target and after that there were several near things at both ends without further addition to the scoring.

Only 22 seconds into the third period and Capitals hit the front for as second time as Curtis Leinweber found the net on the powerplay but Flyers hit back quickly and their own powerplay unit came up with the goods at 44.40 with Jeff Caister rifling the puck past Tomas Hiadlovsky.

All to play for after that with both sides missing out on further powerplay chances but the game was destined for overtime and with both teams going for the winner it fell to Keller to grab the extra point for Flyers, stunning the home side with his last second winner.

Edinburgh Capitals 2- 3 Fife Flyers (After Overtime)

Capitals defender Brent Patry insisted this loss was not a setback. “It’s kind of heart breaking to lose it that way when you consider we had the puck in their zone with under ten seconds to go and they go the other way and score with half a second to go”

“We worked hard and Tomas Hiadlovsky was magnificent again, but we have to take the positives of the last six weeks or so and move on. I wouldn’t say it’s a setback because we still got a point out of this game and we’ve won six out of the last nine. For a team that was bottom of the standings for most of the season, we’re still on a roll and we’ll look to take more points in the coming games.”

The final games of 2012 yielded three points from a possible four for Edinburgh Capitals and  they begin the New Year three points clear of Elite League bottom club Hull Stingrays, but player-coach Richard Hartmann was unhappy at not getting all four points from the weekend .

He said: “I always want maximum points, so from that point of view, I’m not pleased. We won on Saturday and that’s forgotten about as we have to move on so to lose in the last second to Fife in our home rink shouldn’t be happening.”

Scoring for the Capitals is lead by Rene Jarolin on 20 and 19 assists, Richard Hartmann on 11 Goals and 23 assists and Martin Cingel on 11 goals and 18 assists. The ones to watch against the Devils so far this year have been Rene Jarolin who’s netted twice against the Devils also Richard Hartmann who’s lit the lamp once and Martin Cingel also on one goal.

In nets the Capitals have the currently hot Tomas Hiadlovsky who’s save percentage sits at 90% with goals against average of 3.28 %

The Capitals may or may not have a full squad and may or may not have players out injured.  But as they seem to operate in a media vacuum it’s hard to know either way, think of it like “Schrodinger’s cat”  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger's_cat) there’s a full squad of hockey players in a box and there are also some injuries in the box. You can’t know if any of the squad is injured or not until you open the box so they are both fit to play or injured all at the same time.

The Capitals face the Stars away on Saturday while the Devils face Hull at home.

The last time we saw the Capitals was back in September when the devils won 4 – 1 you can read the report here  http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/news/devils-vs-capitals-game-report/ . Scoring for the Devils on the Capitals has come from Mac Faulkner who’s scored 2 and Stuart MacRae & Chris Blight who’ve lit the lamp against the Captails. 

We will be running the “ridiculously childish and disgustingly biased” Match Night Live service for these games, expect name calling and one eyed bias in epic proportions, at the usual location of http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/mnl if you'd like to help out by texting updates (we’d be happy to hear from you) or chip in with some comments on the night please contact us at matchnightlive@gmail.com.

For details of upcoming away travel with Red Army Travel you can get all the information here http://the-inferno.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6212