Ice Hockey: Play-off place slips further away after weekend losses

Published on Friday 11 February 2011 11:33

EDINBURGH CAPITALS were today further away from their target of a play-off place after back-to-back weekend defeats.

The Murrayfield men have now lost their last 19 league games following Saturday's 7-2 defeat at Newcastle and last night's 12-1 home loss to Cardiff Devils. The fans who turned up to watch the action last night saw Devils move to a 7-0 lead inside the first 18 minutes.

They eventually outshot Capitals 61-16 and Stevie Lyle, Cardiff's highly-rated netminder, was a virtual spectator. Cardiff moved the puck around the icepad with such ease and precision that it made the game look like an exhibition.

Capitals were outclassed and overpowered by the side which recently set an Elite League record of 22 wins on the trot.

Indeed, ironic cheers rose from the Murrayfield side of the terracing early on when Capitals fired a shot in anger on Lyle, who faced only four shots in the first 20 minutes.

The Great Britain cap was a little busier in the middle session with five and he had to deal with seven in the third.

Capitals netminder Jens van Poucke was withdrawn after the first period in which he had 17 shots to deal with and let in a confidence-sapping seven goals. He did not appear on the bench after that.

Fife-based Craig Holland deputised and he faced 44 shots. The young minder did well, getting his body in the way of all but five of the attempts.

Capitals' only goal arrived on the power play at 39min 2sec. It received huge applause but, by that time, they were 10-0 down. New Czech defenceman Jan Safar was the man on target with skipper Martin Cingel and defenceman Kyle Horne involved in the move.

Sadly, the one-way traffic continued with Devils netting two more strikes before the welcome final hooter.

The one-sided nature of the game was sad as the Capitals management had mounted a special promotion and claimed a crowd of 1,125. Capitals have won only six of their 43 matches and have 15 points to prop up the ten-strong table.

Fellow-strugglers, Newcastle, who are ninth, have 22 points from 44 matches following their 4-1 defeat at Dundee CCS Stars last night. And Dundee, who hold the eighth and final play-off position, have 29 points from 44 games.

Capitals' dreams of a play-off spot are over on this form and they will have to wait and see when crocked duo, Jeff Hutchins (facial) and Neil Hay (shoulder), who both sat out last night's game, will return.

For the record, Jon Pelle claimed four goals for Devils with Sam Smith netting three. The highly impressive Craig Weller scored two.

On Saturday, Capitals were turned over 7-2 at Newcastle, Jordan Steel and Bari McKenzie scoring.

Cash-strapped Vipers iced only nine skaters, six of them imports, and Edinburgh, with four imports, had a total of 12 skaters on duty.