Edinburgh Capitals unable to build on defeat of Belfast

Capitals, who were playing their fourth match in five nights, were always going to be up against it versus the Elite League leaders, and Beskorowany, man-of-the-match in Saturday’s excellent 4-2 win at Belfast Giants, had already made four saves before he was replaced by Kevin Forshall between the pipes.

Caps went on to lose the first period 5-0 and Canadian forward Dylan Anderson, who scored both goals for the home side, admitted the unexpected loss of Beskorowany, who twisted his knee in making an early save, was a big blow. “It’s tough to lose him, Forsh went in and played hard but he hasn’t played in a while. He did the best he could and we tried to battle – we tied the second period two each – we just did the best we could with the schedule we’ve had.

“We were playing with 11 or 12 players most of the road trip. It would be nice to get a couple of more bodies, it’s something we’ve mentioned (to management) a couple of times.

“We’re hoping to get a couple of guys get back form injury. Guys are playing pretty banged up, pretty injured, hopefully we can get in a couple more players to get through the last 12 games of the season, and if we pick up a couple more wins that would be nice.”

Devils’ defenceman Andrew Hotham scored the game’s opening goal in the fourth minute, firing across Forshall from the keeper’s right into the top-left hand corner.

Five minutes later, Joey Haddad made it 2-0 with a fierce one timer from the high slot, before a risky Ainars Podzins cross-ice pass was easily mopped up by the Devils defence leading to a break-away at the other end, Cardiff’s Drew Paris scoring at the second attempt after Forshall had saved his initial effort.

Forshall seemed shaken up after being bulldozed over by Cardiff’s Matt Pope in the 13th minute – Caps won a two minute power-play as a result but did nothing with it, and Paris made it 4-0 with a harmless looking wrist shot from the blue line that flew through a sea of bodies and into the net at 15 minutes and 43 seconds, Matthew Myers adding Devils’ fifth on the power-play moments later.

After the interval Devils replaced GB international goalie Ben Bowns with Thomas Murdy, and the understudy soon picked the puck out of the net as Anderson deflected a nice Igor Valeyev slap-pass beyond him.

Devils restored their five-goal cushion immediately. Two Capitals players collided resulting in a misplaced pass and a cheap give away, Jake Morrisette scoring for Cardiff with ease on the resulting break-away. Joey Haddad and Anderson then traded goals as Devils went into the locker room with a 7-2 lead after 40 minutes.

Devils, playing in front of a bumper Edinburgh crowd thanks to a ticket promotion, did not let up in the third adding further goals from Paris, a second of the game for Haddad and a late Patrick Asselin strike.

Anderson continued: “Winning on Saturday was good for everybody, it was a nice ferry ride home because Belfast are a good team and we managed to pull off a win with just 12 guys. We hoped tonight we could stick with the same game plan, but it was very difficult.

“We don’t know too much about the injury to Besko yet, he’s a great person we all hope he can be back soon. I guess we’ll find out when the swelling goes down.”