EIHL week 13 round-up

Another busy week in the Rapid Solicitors Elite League, where all the teams other than Sheffield took to the ice in regular season and Challenge Cup action. Steelers were of course in Denmark for the Continental Cup, where they were unfortunately unsuccessful in progressing to the finals, following losses against Italian, Danish and Hungarian opposition.

On the domestic front however we start off with league leaders Belfast, who had only the one game – a Saturday clash at the Odyssey against Braehead. And what a cracker ensued with the visitors providing a stiff test for Giants. Clan in fact led 4-3 with less than 8 minutes to play before a rousing home comeback so Doug Christiansen’s men pull this one out of the fire with a game winning strike by Craig Peacock in the 58th minute.

This game also counted for Challenge Cup points and in effect confirmed Giants as group winners. One downside for Giants was the freak injury sustained by Benoit Doucet as he badly injured a knee after one of the linesmen fell on him during an altercation with Sam Zajac of the Clan.

This result leaves Giants 5 points clear of Nottingham, with Panthers winning their only league game of the weekend at the NIC against Hull by 6-1 without too much in the way of stress. Doubles from David-Alexandre Beauregard and Brandon Benedict saw Panthers safely home.

Up in Tayside Paul Thompson’s Coventry blanked home side Dundee 3-0 with Peter Hirsch posting 29 saves for his 4th shutout of the season so far and just down the East Coast in Kirkcaldy it was Flyers v Capitals with the visitors prevailing 4-2 thanks to a double by Sean Menton, while young Brit Steven Gunn also notched a couple in the losing Flyers cause.

To Sunday now where Cardiff played their only weekend game and picked up a couple of points after a 5-1 home win over Fife. Not for the first time Flyers were massively outshot – 57-22 on this occasion. Jeff Pierce helped himself to a brace and Max Birbraer was involved in every Devils goal with 1+4.

Edinburgh faced off at home against Dundee and in quite a reversal in fortunes for Dan Ceman’s men the visitors hammered their hosts 6-0 with Chris Whitley only having to stop 17 shots for his shutout, while at the other end it was a great night for former Capital Jeff Hutchins as he scored a treble.

The final league game of the weekend saw Braehead welcome back Kyle Bruce from suspension and he helped his side to a 3-2 victory at Hull. Jade Galbraith was the star, scoring 1+2 and jumping to joint top points scorer in Elite League competitive games this season with 36 points (9+27 from 20 games) the same totals as Scott Champagne of Nottingham, although he has played some 7 games more.

At the Skydome we had a meaningless Challenge Cup group B game between Blaze and Panthers but what a game it turned out to be. After the 1st period Blaze incredibly led 5-0 but by the end Panthers had fought back to tie it 5-5, with player coach Corey Neilson scoring 2+2 on the night including the game tying goal in the 59th minute.

Assuming Braehead cannot beat Fife by 14 clear goals on Sunday night at Kirkcaldy we know that one of the semi-finals will match up Clan and Panthers over two legs, while the other semi will have Belfast playing either Cardiff or Sheffield.