Ice Hockey: Glaswegian's goal is to shoot down Edinburgh

Published on Friday 16 October 2009 10:03

COLIN SHIELDS celebrated as Belfast Giants emerged with a 6-2 victory over Edinburgh Capitals at Murrayfield last month leaving local ice hockey fans down in the dumps.

And the Glasgow-born player is looking to double-up when under-strength Capitals visit Belfast tonight as Giants continue their defence of the Challenge Cup. Giants also won the Knockout Cup last season and Shields believes the early-season Challenge Cup success proved a massive bonus for the squad 12 months ago.

Last weekend's win double over Cardiff Devils, a 5-3 success in Belfast in the league on Saturday and a 4-3 victory at Cardiff in the Challenge Cup 24 hours later, highlights the task Capitals face in Group A.

The Cup victory was all the sweeter as Giants won in a penalty shootout leaving Devils cursing themselves after twice being ahead by two goals. The comeback says a lot for Giants' character and it was ice-cool Evan Cheverie who netted the game-winner after nine rounds of penalty shots.

Cheverie was voted the Elite League's player of the week thanks to that strike and five assists over the weekend.

Shields netted in Saturday's encounter and followed up with a single in Sunday's game but he was quick to salute former Capitals netminder Stephen Murphy, calling him the most consistent player in Giants' line-up this season.

Murphy, who broke Capitals' hearts at Murrayfield with a string of fine stops, will again be a key player as the section pace-setters aim to consolidate their position against Capitals who sit in third spot in Group A with two points.

Shields said: "Stephen has been our best player this season.

"He is our most consistent performer and he's done really well for us.

He's certainly taken his chance here and he's really fitting in well. He's a really good goal tender who has played at the highest level." Shields is also influential having taken his personal tally to 14 points, eight goals and six assists in 12 games, and a bonus to the club has been the return to duty of player/coach Steve Thornton after injury.

Shields added: "He (Thornton) is a great player, a coach and a leader as well. He has played in top leagues around the world and he has good energy.

"Edinburgh won on Saturday and lost on Sunday, but that will happen in this league.

"It also takes time for teams to get used to each other and tonight should be an interesting match-up. Edinburgh have got some skilful new players.

"They have a lot of high energy players and they have great pace. You can't sit back and have an easy game against them.

"We've got to go out and match them but they have guys missing and we'll attempt to wear them down and hope that helps us get the job done.

Last year, we won the Challenge Cup beating Manchester Phoenix in the final and we won the first few games which got us rolling.

"That was great for the team and the fans and winning the Challenge and the Knockout Cup, also beating Manchester in the final, showed that we had an impact team.

"We didn't do as well as we would have hoped in the league and we want to address that this season but the Challenge Cup is important to us and the fans and we'll be going all out to defend it as it was so important to us last season."