Devils @ Capitals - Match Preview

2nd Nov 2012 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

Sunday night see’s the Devils play the second match of their road trip in the Dickensian splendour of  the Murrayfield ice rink  to take on the Edinburgh Capitals. The Devils will also be accompanied by a good number of the Red Army with some 50 fans making the trip up to cheers on the team on the road.

This will be the second meeting between the two clubs this season with the last result coming out with the Devils on top winning 4 – 1 at home back in September.  The Capitals will be keen to snap their recent run of form which has seen them lose three games on the bounce conceding a staggering 16 unanswered goals.

Looking at their last few games in some detail we have the Capitals going down to the Panthers twice in the last week. Sunday night Craig Kowalski in the Panthers net had to make just 21 stops for his shutout while no fewer than eleven Panthers got on the score sheet as Capitals were held scoreless for a second successive home game.

It took until 10.51 for the visitors to open the scoring with a goal by Matthew Myers but at 17.01 defenseman Stephen Lee doubled Panthers lead with his first goal of the season.

The second period saw fewer chances but one further goal in the away column as Eric Werner was on target for the visitors at 33.29 on the power play.

Panthers continued to snuff out the home offence and later on in the third period went nap as they added further strikes by Bruce Graham at 56.49 and Matt Francis at 58.09 to continue what is up until now a very impressive road trip to Scotland.

Edinburgh Capitals 0 – 5 Nottingham Panthers

Midweek the Capitals made the trip down to Nottingham to face the “Rampant Panthers” again  with worryingly similar results to Sundays game with again No fewer than eleven Panthers scoring points on the night and the Panthers icing three goaltenders who saver a combined 22 shot blanking of the visitors for the Capitals third straight game without a goal.

The game was effectively over early on as Panthers went 3-0 ahead by the 12th minute. Matt Francis was first to score at 7.02 and further goals came from Robert Lachowicz at 8.32 and Jonathan Weaver at 11.01. Panthers kept their feet on the gas and before the opening period was over had gone nap with strikes from Pat Galivan at 17.10 and Jordan Fox at 19.40.

The second period saw little change with Fox adding his second at 32.25 and Francis scoring shorthanded at 35.18 to see off Tomas Hiadlovsky in the Capitals net. Replacement Craig Holland was soon picking the puck out of the net as Brandon Benedict made it 8-0 on the power play at 38.51.

The final period saw the visitors hold out until 50.44 when Bruce Graham scored and the scoring was completed with a strike from David Ling at 55.36, ending what was a very long night for the Scots side.

Final score Nottingham Panthers 10 -  0  Edinburgh Capitals

Scoring for the Capitals has been non-existent for the last few games but the ones to watch out for ( if they do look like scoring) are Rene Jarolin with 11 Goals and 3 Assists, Michal Dobron with 2 Goals and 8  assists and Richard Hartmann also on 2 goals and 8 assists.

The net minder for the Capitals might well be Tomas Hiadlovsky who has an 89% save percentage but it may also be one of the three other net minders on the Capitals roster but it’s hard to tell.

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 Devils who take on the Clan the night before travel without Max Birbraer and Devin Didiomete and will more than likely be without Tyson Marsh through injury. On the plus side it’s a strong possibility that new  NHL lockout signing Paul Bissonnette will be in for this game.

We will be running the “ridiculously childish and disgustingly biased” Match Night Live service for this game, 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://www.the-inferno.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6518