Ice Hockey: Caps have stomach for Hull battle

Hiadlovsky revealed that the Caps squad, currently on a three-game winning streak, have enjoyed two Christmas dinners over the festive period.

The multinational squad is represented by players from six different countries and Slovakian Hiadlovsky explained: “It’s been great. On Christmas day, (Capitals defenceman) Brent Patry and his wife prepared us a traditional Canadian meal and, on Christmas Eve, the day on which Slovakian’s celebrate Christmas, some of the guys prepared a Slovakian dinner.

“We were back training  yesterday, back to work. I was glad, as I have eaten far too much over the last few days, and really needed it.

“We’re all very excited about the game tonight. Over the last month and a half we’ve played very well, we want to keep that going. Hull are now below us in the table, with two points less, and we want to increase that gap.”

Edinburgh will be hoping to fare better than their last visit to the Hull arena, a 6-3 loss in September, when Hiadlovsky was given his marching orders – and subsequently banned for five matches – after kicking  out at Stingrays player-coach Sylvain Cloutier.

The 24-year-old, who in the last eight games has a save percentage 91.6 per cent, and is the current Elite League player of the week, believes that incident is now firmly behind him and should have no bearing on  tonight’s game.

He said: “I’m not even thinking about that.

“Tonight is an important  game, just one of many  important games left in the  season, and we are always  looking ahead, rather than what is behind us.”

Hull, after an encouraging start to the season, have suffered a slump in form, losing their last seven games, including a 6-2 defeat to the Capitals at Murrayfield earlier this month. However, they will have been boosted by their performance last time out, picking up a valuable league point in Sunday’s 2-1 shoot-out loss to  Cardiff Devils.