29th September in the EIHL

Saturday, September 29th 2012

Cardiff Devil – Edinburgh Capitals 4:1 Rapid Solicitors Elite League

After a disappointing 4:0 loss to the Belfast Giants midweek, the Devils looked to bounce back and win over the fans who were losing patience after a slow start by the Devils.

With time running out in the first period, Devils forward Mac Faulkner gave the home side the lead on a shorthanded breakaway, adding to his league leading point’s total.
Midway in the second, Captain Stuart MacRae doubled the lead for Cardiff after tapping in a rebound from Chris Blights wraparound attempt.

Edinburgh tried to stage a comeback in the dying moments of the game, pulling back to within one on a beautiful tip by Marcis Zembergs, only to matched 51 seconds by Mac Faulkner’s’ second goal of the night.

Fan favourite Devin Didiomete then sealed the capitals fate late in the game, completeing a Gordie Howe hat trick, assisted the first goal, a fight 28 seconds into the third period and sealing the victory with a goal of his own with less than 3 minutes remaining.


Sheffield Steelers – Nottingham Panthers 1:2 (After shootout) Rapid Solicitors Elite League

The second encounter between the two English sides proved to be just as evenly matched as the first just a week prior.
Winning the first encounter on the road, Sheffield came into the game with a 5 game winning streak in the league, and looked to add more points to remain top of the EIHL table.

After a goalless opening period, the Panthers struck first, 51 seconds into the second period with Jordan Fox finding the net to give the visitors a goal advantage.
The Steelers responded late in the period to level the game, Jeff Legue netting his fifth of the season, which proved to be the game tying goal, as the third period saw no further scoring.

5 minutes of 4 on 4 overtime couldn’t settle the game, so the game went to a shootout.
The Panthers ultimately took the shootout after Matt Francis and David Ling scored on the first two shots, and the Steelers failed to beat Craig Kowalski, ending their streak.

Belfast Giants – Braehead Clan 3:2 Challenge Cup Group A

Away from the league action, the Challenge cup resumed with the Braehead Clan travelling to Northern Ireland to play the Belfast Giants.

After upsetting the league champions at home earlier in the month, the Braehead Clan had a lot to prove as they took on a Belfast side riding high with confidence after easily defeated the Cardiff Devils 4:0 just two days earlier.

It was the Giants who opened the scoring 7 minutes into the game with a shot by Robby Sandrock, however Braehead managed to level the game just a head of the first intermission, after seeing the majority of the opening 20 minutes dominated by Belfast, who registered 15 shorts on netminder Garrett Zemlak.

The game continued for the second period at a much more even pace, as the shots on goal were more balanced, Braehead with 7 and Belfast with 10. However, two late strikes saw Belfast go into the second intermission two goals ahead as Will Colbert struck on the powerplay and Greg Stewart struck again on the powerplay, 5 seconds before the buzzer.

Belfast came out looking to defend their lead and leave with two valuable points, however 1 of Braeheads 2 third period shots managed to find its way into the net as Jade Galbraith pulled his side back to within one.
Despite pulling goalie Garrett Zemlak late on, Belfast stood firm and held on for the win in what should have been a more one sided affair with Belfast firing more 25 more shots than Braehead.

Coventry Blaze – Hull Stingrays 6:5 (After shootout) Challenge Cup Group B

The final match got underway at the Skydome in Coventry as the Blaze opened their challenge cup campaign in style.

A double by Gerome Guidice saw the home team two goals ahead midway through the first period, looking to have Coventry set for an easy two points.
Hull came out for the second period with a new found energy, scoring 5 goals in a space of eight minutes.
Dominic Osman capitalised on a powerplay opportunity, quickly followed by Jereme Tendlers’ shorthanded effort.  Less than two minutes later Osman netted for a second time, quickly followed by Jason Silverthorn 29 seconds later. The final Stingrays goal came from Janis Ozolins on the powerplay to make it 5-2 to Hull.

At this point,  She Guthrie’s goal 42 seconds after the Stingrays final goal could’ve been seen as a mere consolation, but as the teams came out for the third period, Coventry netted two powerplay goals in quick succession, firstly from Brad Leeb and then Mike Schutte levelled the game with more than 16 minutes remaining.

The period drew to a close at 5:5, and a goalless 4 on 4 overtime period meant the game needed a shootout.

After Janis Ozolins scored on the first shot of the shootout, the pressure was on Gerome Giudice to score or lose the game and he came up big when needed, scoring to force it into sudden death.
Jason Silverthorn left the door open for Brad Leeb to take the game, and with the 5th shot for the Blaze that’s exactly what he did.

Blaze took the game 6:5 after a thrilling game.

 

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