Christiansen holds his breath as duo return

Published on Friday 8 February 2008 09:14

DOUG CHRISTIANSEN is keeping his fingers crossed that Great Britain hopefuls Mark Garside and Ben O'Connor return unscathed from this week's trip to the Mont Blanc Euro Challenge with the Great Britain team.

If they do, Capitals will be near full strength for the tough away double-header at Nottingham Panthers tomorrow (7pm) and Manchester Phoenix on Sunday (5.30pm).

Experienced Lithuanian hit-man Dino Bauba, who has been sidelined for the last two months, will not be considered, but Christiansen's men go into the trip boosted by Sunday's 4-1 home success over fifth-placed Newcastle Vipers.

Capitals have done well in Nottingham so far this term. They lost 6-4 on their first visit but took big-budget Panthers to sudden-death overtime before being squeezed out 3-2 on their last visit.

Sunday brings Capitals' first visit to Manchester in the bmibaby Elite League this term

and they need to pick up points if they want to make the post-season play-offs. The Murrayfield men only have four home matches remaining with ten on the road.

And their road record is dismal having only collected three points. One came courtesy of the overtime defeat at Nottingham and the single win arrived just before Christmas at Hull Stingrays when Christiansen's men emerged with a 3-1 victory.

The Riversdale rink outfit have scored only 34 goals on their travels and lost 74.

They are now five points from a play-off place, having amassed 25 points from 11 wins in 40 games while Basingstoke Bison, who sit in the eighth and final play-off position, have 30 points from 38 starts.

Christiansen is looking for a return from the trip and, at the same time, hoping that Manchester can do him a favour tomorrow night by beating Bison in Basingstoke.

That's not beyond them following their stunning 6-3 victory over second-placed Belfast Giants last Sunday. Bison travel to Sheffield Steelers, who are third, on Sunday and could find that tough while bottom club Hull, who have 22 points so far from 41 games, travel to long-time league pace-setters Coventry Blaze tomorrow in their only game of the weekend.

Christiansen remains consistent. He doesn't look over his shoulder at the results Basingstoke and Hull are posting. Rather, he concentrates on Capitals.

However, the club's director of coaching was delighted with the come-from-behind victory over Newcastle, describing the performance as possibly the best of the season so far.

The giant American said: "We've been playing much better lately and we did a job defensively against Newcastle which was really pleasing.

"We also cut our mistakes and all the team did their job. Mike Stutzel rose to the occasion, scoring three goals and he had a fantastic game.

"We've worked hard in training this week and, the last time we played Nottingham in their own rink, we took them to overtime.

"The last time we were in Manchester was way back in the season.

"Their small rink makes things difficult but we've real strides in the right direction recently and we're looking to take something this weekend to keep pressure on Basingstoke.

"Ben (O'Connor) and Mark (Garside) are with the Great Britain team this week.

"Any time you represent your country is good and they've be playing at a higher level this week.

"Any time you play at a higher level you learn and Mark was flying when he came back from the under-20 world championship. I hope it is the same again.

"Ben has played at under-age level before but it's the first time for both of them at senior level. If they learn from it then that's great, but we'll not consider Dino (Bauba). He's been back in Lithuania on family business and we'll let him have more time.

"He'll possibly play against Coventry in the Knockout Cup semi-final, first-leg, in Edinburgh next Tuesday, but we'll have to wait and see."