Match Preview - Devils Vs Capitals 17th Decmeber

13th Dec 2011 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

By this stage last season I seem to recall that I may have posted the lyrics to Bryan Adams “We’re goanna win” as a game preview for a Capitals game, this year things look like they could well be very different. We get to see just how much things have changed at the Capitals for the first time on Saturday Night as the Devils play hosts to the Edinburgh Capitals for the first time this season.  

Last season saw the Capitals sign a full team and start well but things fell apart sometime in mid-November when the money ran out or low and players left in droves. This left the club with a truly disastrous 2010/11 season, which was more than a little embarrassing and best not spoken of, many believed that it was the end for the Edinburgh Capitals and they would join the Newcastle Vipers as one of this summer defunct clubs.

This of course was not the case and with the promise of new backing in place (which then fell through) the Capitals remained in the league for this season, they did of course lose a great many of their Stalwarts over the summer with the departures of Kyle Horne (to Fife), Jeff Hutchins (to Dundee) and club Captain Martin Cingel after 9 seasons with the Club.

In building this year’s side the one major change at the Capitals seems to be that instead of looking to pick up players in North America and cutting their cloth to fit their budget they have instead looked to Eastern European Hockey to fill their depleted ranks.

The key off season signings of the Capitals were

Center Richard Hartmann as player Coach. Hartmann spent last season playing for Lausitzer Füchse in the German Bundesliga where he had 32 points from 14 goals and 18 assists clocking up just 14 penalty minutes. In the Slovakian leagues Hartmann has 405 points from 151 goals and 254 assists having played in 555 games. Hartmann has got off to a great start scoring 9 Goals and racking up 22 assists for 31 points so far this season.

The new coaches first signing was Left winger Rene Jarolin 29, who Hartmann had spent five seasons with at Slovakian club HC Skalica. Speaking of the signing of Jarolin player-coach Hartmann had this to say “Rene has consistently scored goals at a high level and I think he can have a big impact.” Something which is has done so far this year is spades scoring 23 goals, 14 assists for 37 point.

Joining them is Marcis Zembergs. Standing 6'1" tall and weighing in at 194 pounds the Latvia winger spent last season playing for Prizma Riga, HK Ozolnieki/Monarhs and SK Saga in the Latvia and Latvia 2 leagues.

Zembergs commented, "I'm very happy to have signed for the Capitals. It's a fantastic opportunity for me to play in this league. I have heard lots of good things about the city of Edinburgh. I just hope I can play beautiful hockey for the team and help the Capitals make the play-offs."

Marcis is a gifted goal scorer and last season had combined totals of 71 points from 35 goals and 36 assists over 85 games and a total of 56 penalty minutes. He’s again started well in the Elite league racking up 9 goals and 13 assists for 22 points so far.

In addition to this the Capitals also signed two players who had been based in Cardiff over the summer and who played for the Titans, forward Peter Holecko and defenseman Tomas Valecko.

Power forward Peter Holecko plays on left wing and is a highly experienced bringing a wealth of experience from his 431 games in the Slovakian Extraliga.

 At 6ft 3" and 216lbs, Holecko brings not only size but also great skating and skill levels to the team. Holecko commented on his signing to the Capitals saying.

"I'm pleased to have signed with the Capitals and am really looking forward to being on a team with Tomas Valecko. I am sure that we can make our mark and have Edinburgh become a team to be reckoned with."

He has again started well racking up 9 goals and 11 assists for 20 points so far this season. 

Defenseman Tomas Valecko stands 6'1" tall and weighs 194 lbs. Last season he played for HK Spisska Nova Ves and HK Michalovce and had combined totals of 10 points from 1 goal and 9 assists and 28 penalty minutes in regular season games.

Valecko commented, "I am looking forward to coming to Edinburgh this season. I have heard lots of good things about the city and team. I hope I can do a good job and be a hit with the fans."  He certainly also got off to a good start scoring 6 goals and 11 assists for 17 points so far this year.

In addition to these newcomers to the league the Capitals also signed Right wing Bari McKenzie who has spent the last couple of seasons playing for Solway Sharks in the Northern Ice Hockey League where he has been a top 3 points winner for both the 08/09 and 09/10 seasons. McKenzie is no stranger to the Elite Ice Hockey League having served brief stints for Basingstoke Bison, Coventry Blaze and Belfast Giants. Despite failing to impress on previous EIHL outings he’s racked up 10 goals and 17 assists for 27 points so far this season.

In nets the Capitals have signed Welsh Born Nathan Craze. Craze, who also spent time with Bracknell Bees and Swindon Wildcats in the English Premier Ice Hockey League, has been at playing as backup net minder for the Belfast Giants for the last three seasons but jumped at the chance of a start with the Capitals. Its been a rough season for Nathan it seems currently ranked 9th in the league with a save percentage of 88.5 %

We spoke to Nathan at length on his signing for the Capitals earlier in the year you can read the full write up here.
http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/news/crazy-talk/

Last weekend saw the Capitals in action on Friday against the Panthers and then at home in Edinburgh to the Stingrays on Sunday.

Friday night saw the Panthers take charge early on with strikes from Robert Lachowicz at 4.56 and Matt Francis at 6.19. However despite most of the play continuing in the Capitals zone the Panthers were held to just 2 goals in the first period.

The second period saw the Panthers keep up the pressure with Heerema scoring his first early in the period and a power play goal at by Brandon Benedict had Panthers 4-0 ahead before a first Capitals reply from Bari McKenzie at the Panthers response to this was to score again via Heerema’s whose second goal set the score line to 5-1 at the end of the second.
Peter Holecko pulled another back for Capitals at early in the third but it was Panthers who ended the nights scoring at 45.32 with David-Alexandre Beareguard.

All in all a testing road game for the Capitals and one that saw Nathan Craze face 51 shots.

Sunday saw the Capitals in action again in what proved to be a goal festival, the Stingrays made a flying start, going 2 goals up inside 5 minutes, with Derek Campbell and Sam McCluskey scoring on the power play . Stingrays failed to build on that lead however and Marcis Zembergs pulled one back for Capitals before the Capitals closed out the period.

Only 10 seconds into period 2 and Campbell scored his second of the night to give Stingrays a 3-1 lead but that only inspired Capitals to hit a purple patch and they scored 3 without reply through Rene Jarolin, Sean Menton and Zembergs on the power play to turn the game their way. Undeterred however the Stingrays scored twice more through a Jereme Tendler double to see his side lead 5-4.

The third period brought another complete turnaround with Capitals edging ahead with strikes by Richard Hartmann 37 seconds in and then Jiri Hanzal, only for Tendler to complete a straight hat trick with the game tying goal for Stingrays at the power play ending the regulation scoring.

Overtime couldn’t split the two teams and therefore to a shootout which saw Jiri Hanzal fire in the winning shot and win the game for the Capitals.

The Devils played just one game last weekend beating the Dundee Stars 6 -2 at home you can see highlights of the win here

http://www.cardiffdevils.com/news/stars-highlights-online/

Last weekend the Devils were without Mark Smith, Gerard Adams and forward Jeff Pierce at the time of writing there has been no indication if Adams of Pierce will Ice this weekend. Also I can’t find any reports of Injuries in the Capitals camp so it looks like they will Ice a full team in Cardiff on Saturday.

If you don’t have a ticket as yet we’d suggest that you get one as soon as you can as this game is looking like it could be a sellout.

If you do find that you’ve left getting a ticket to late or don’t fancy the round trip down from Edinburgh we will be running the “Childish and amazingly Biased” Match Night Live service for this game, at the usual location of www.theinferno.co.uk/mnl if you'd like to help out or chip in with some comments on the night please contact us at matchnightlive@gmail.com. You can also follow on Twitter for updates on @InfernoMNL

And you’re looking for somewhere to have a pint and a bite to eat before the game or a few beers afterwards we’d suggest the Pilot in Penarth which is a short trip away and will also be open afterwards for post-match drinks, directions to the pub can be found here - http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/where-to-eatdrink/