Capitals left seeing Stars for second night in a row

A TYPICALLY battling performance by Edinburgh Capitals was not enough as they lost 4-1 for the second time in as many nights to Dundee Stars at Murrayfield last night.

Trevor Gerling was on target for Caps

Stars had won the Tayside leg of their weekend doubleheader 24 hours earlier by the same scoreline and two goals seconds apart early in the third period killed last night’s game as a contest.

Feisty Capitals forward Callum Boyd admitted Edinburgh struggled to get back into the match after giving away “two easy goals” in their 12th straight defeat and vowed that despite their terrible run, with just eight games of the season remaining, players would do everything they can to give the club’s loyal supporters something to shout about.

Boyd said: “It doesn’t help when you’re battling so hard to stay in the game and you give away two easy goals like that. They were lucky bounces, but we need to try harder to come back from that and not let it bother us.

“We tried to keep a buzz about us, but it’s hard to get things going when nothing seems to be going your way.

“We still have eight games to go, and we’ll be giving it our best shot to try and give something back to our fans who are coming out to support and cheer us on no matter what. Hopefully we can give them a couple of wins before the season’s end.”

It was a scrappy encounter. Stars created the majority of the chances throughout and Edinburgh’s Carsen Chubak was by far the busier goalie, as the visitors out-shot the home side 47–21.

Caps though could count themselves unlucky as an early Garrett Milan effort was ruled no-goal, the nets having been kicked off their moorings by a Dundee player just a fraction of a second before Milan shot into an empty cage.

Dundee took full advantage of their reprieve, scoring just seconds later, John Dolan firing home a rebound in the 11th minute. However, Trevor Gerling scored a deserved equaliser three minutes later, collecting a Milan stretch-pass to rip a high shot past the glove of Koenig.

Stars dominated the middle period in terms of quality chances and only some sharp goal-tending by Chubak and backs-to-the-wall defence by the Caps’ rearguard kept the scores level going into the final 20 minutes; although Stars had a goal chopped off themselves in the 34th minute after Wilson deemed an effort from right in front of Chubak had been deliberately kicked in by the Dundee player.

The match turned the way of Dundee when first ex-Capitals forward Curtis Leinweber, with a blue-line slap-shot and new Stars signing Scott Brannon, with a fierce back-hand, scored in the 44th minute just 17 seconds apart to give the visitors a lead they never looked like giving up.

Two minutes later Mikael Lidhammar scored Dundee’s fourth, although the goal should never have stood, the puck ricocheting into Lidhammar’s path via a Justin Faryna’s high stick.

Despite Edinburgh’s terrible run, an exhausted Boyd refused to be downbeat. He concluded: “I’m still enjoying it. getting this ice time is helping me improve. It’s a big change from not playing much at all to suddenly stepping up like this, but I’ve been waiting for a chance like this all season.”