Unlucky Capitals squeezed out as Steelers show mettle in shoot-out

Published on Monday 16 November 2009 09:05

ICE-COOL Joey Talbot proved a thorn in the side as Sheffield Steelers collected confidence-boosting, back-to-back wins over Edinburgh Capitals.

The 29-year-old hitman fired a glory treble as Steelers sealed a Challenge Cup semi-final berth with a 6-1 victory over the Scots in a Group A qualifier on Saturday.

And the former Alaska Aces and Peoria Rivermen forward was influential in setting up Sheffield's two goals in regulation before finding the net twice in the penalty shoot-out as Steelers completed a win-double weekend in an Elite League thriller at Murrayfield last night.

Frankly, Steelers mugged under-strength Capitals to take two valuable points on the road and move off the bottom of the eight-strong table.

In fact, they join Capitals on ten points but have played three more games.

The contrast in the two camps could not have been more marked at the end of the contest. Talbot and his jubilant team-mates formed a massive huddle after Capitals defenceman Mike Beynon had fluffed his penalty shot attempt.

Capitals left the ice in sombre mood and were then left to ponder what might have been having led the defending league champions twice in a bruising battle.

Dejected Doug Christiansen, Capitals' director of hockey, praised his squad for their work ethic but said: "We put ourselves in a position to win but didn't. We've done that in three games recently and we've failed to take full points."

Kevin Bolibruck provided the vital touch as Steelers scored the game-tying goal with less than three minutes remaining. Capitals had twice led, going ahead for the first time in the second minute when Owen Fussey scored on the power play after good build-up play from Jeff Hutchins and Chris Allen.

Capitals maintained their slender advantage until the 36th minute when Jason Hewitt levelled but, ten minutes later, Fussey was on the mark for a second time, also on the power play, with interim skipper Mark Smith and Allen involved.

It looked as if the home side would sneak a welcome win to snap a disappointing recent run which has seen them win only once in six games until the late counter.

And Steelers took their chance to claim two points following a penalty-filled, incident-packed game in which Capitals logged 40 sin bin minutes and Sheffield 61.

Both netminders, Cody Rudkowsky in the home net and Andrew Verner in the opposite cage, had outstanding games and both made saves during the shoot-out.

Crestfallen Christiansen added: "The guys could not have worked any harder. Sometimes in a shoot-out you win and sometimes you lose.

"It's hard to fault them when guys work so hard and we led twice. They are a good team. When you are short of bodies it is hard sometimes to sustain pressure.

"Sometimes that means you have to be a bit more defensive but we got the point and that's a big step in the right direction.

"That snaps a bunch of losses in a row and we can re-group as we have a tough weekend coming up."

Capitals travel to former league champions Coventry Blaze on Saturday and entertain the men from The Skydome on Sunday.

Christiansen added: "We led until three minutes to go and that's frustrating. Two weeks ago, we were four and two with two overtime wins and everybody thought we were great.

"This week we've lost three league games – I'm not counting Saturday as it was a cup game – by giving up goals in the last seven minutes.

"Sometimes the puck bounces your way and sometimes it doesn't and that was the way it was against Sheffield."

He added: "The only thing I was disappointed about was that we were not able to capitalise on a power play opportunity in sudden-death overtime. We were camped in their end and the puck didn't go in – sometimes that happens – but Verner made some good saves and he played extremely well. He kept them in it at times but Cody (Rudkowsky) made some huge saves for us, too."

Sheffield coach Dave Matsos praised Edinburgh and said: "They have a really good team but this has been a good weekend for us and, hopefully, this is a turning point."

Edinburgh's basement rivals, Hull Stingrays, lost twice at the weekend, suffering a 5-2 home defeat to league pacesetters Nottingham Panthers and then a 5-0 defeat to Coventry.