EIHL week 11 round-up
A hot off the press Ice Chips this week as Fife Flyers pick up their first ever regular season victory in the Rapid Solicitors Elite Ice Hockey League with a thrilling shootout success in their Tuesday night home match with Hull Stingrays.
More of that one later but it’s been another busy week in the EIHL with every team in action at least twice but those hardy souls from Belfast and Fife suiting up three times in three nights!
And it’s still the Giants from Northern Ireland who lead the way, despite not firing on all cylinders right now as they play through a bit of a rough patch, compared to their impressive form earlier in the campaign.
Friday night saw Fife at the Odyssey and if truth be told the home side were never in any danger. Giants led 5-1 by the 43rd minute and although Flyers never gave up the 6-3 final was the least that Doug Christiansen’s men deserved.
It was back to the Odyssey on Saturday for Giants with Cardiff Devils the visitors and this time a superb defensive display saw the Welsh side prevail 2-1 with Kenton Smith scoring the game winner as early as the 27th minute.
Nearest challengers Nottingham and Sheffield pitched up for an NIC showdown in front of nearly 7,000 fans and an enthralling contest was only decided by a single goal on the powerplay by GB star David Clarke in the 30th minute. Both goaltenders were immense and Craig Kowalski picked up a 30 shot shutout (his 5th of the season already).
Other league action was in Scotland with all four Scots sides matching up. Braehead had a great next at home against Fife and skated to an impressive 10-1 victory with the Clan first line in scintillating form, including 4 goals for Mike Bayrack and a treble from Jade Galbraith.
Up in Dundee Edinburgh had a superb road win despite still missing goaltender Nathan Craze. Craig Holland stepped up the the mark and helped his side to a 3-2 win in overtime with the prolific Rene Jarolin grabbing the game winner in the 63rd minute.
The other game on Saturday saw Hull and Coventry in Challenge Cup Group B action and the teams shared four goals in what was effectively a dead rubber for both sides.
Sunday night saw Nottingham close the gap on Belfast to just two points after they hammered Fife 8-1 in Kirkcaldy, with Jordan Fox leading the way with 2+3.
A tense encounter in Wales saw Devils unable to build on their win in Belfast the previous night as they went down 4-3 to Braehead, this being the first road win of the season in the regular season for Drew Bannister’s men. Mike Bayrack again starred with his second hat trick in consecutive nights and inside the final minute of overtime it was defenceman Tim Wedderburn who fired in the winning goal.
Coventry gave a home debut to Woo-Sang Park and the newcomer impressed in a MVP display, which included a goal in a 4-3 win over Dundee in the final league game of the night.
In the Challenge Cup Belfast went to the top of Group A with a 8-2 win over a short-staffed Edinburgh in Scotland, with Craig Peacock firing a treble,
Sheffield gained a narrow but vital 2-1 Group B win over Hull that keeps their hopes of a semi-final slot very much alive – Steelers or Devils to join Panthers from that group!
So, to Tuesday night and they will indeed be singing and dancing in the streets of Kirkcaldy as Flyers finally got the monkey off their back and tasted regular season victory. A goal by Matt Siddall with 86 seconds left tied their game with Hull at 4-4 and took it into overtime and then a shootout where Mike Hamilton was the only scorer to give the Scots side the win.
