Capitals excited to be back in with a shout of play-offs

Martin Cingel celebrates a Capitals goal against Belfast

Caps reignited their play-off chances with wins at Dundee Stars and Fife Flyers last weekend. They ran out of gas in the third period against Belfast Giants – their third game in as many days – resulting in an 8-3 home loss last Sunday night.

Edinburgh, who have won three of their last four games away from Murrayfield, including a 3-2 success at Braehead last month, are six points outside a play-off spot but hold three games in hand over Coventry Blaze who occupy the final post-season berth.

Defenceman Plews said: “We’ve been working hard, those two wins we had last week have given the boys a boost. I think the guys are pretty excited that we’ve given ourselves a look in at the play-offs again.

“If we play the same way we did at Fife and Dundee, and even in the early part of the Belfast game, I reckon we’ll have a good weekend.

“Braehead are a good team, especially at home, so getting the two points there last time was huge for us and gives us a bit of confidence going into tomorrow.”

Capitals are hopeful of having Ian Schultz, who missed the majority of the Belfast game with an arm injury, and Michael D’Orazio, who has not played in the club’s past two matches, back in the line-up. However, top points scorer, Pavel Vorobyev, is likely to miss out as he recovers from a lower body injury sustained during the warm-up last Saturday in Kirkcaldy.

Capitals complete their weekend with a match against title-chasing Sheffield Steelers at Murrayfield on Sunday.

Canadian centre-man, Taylor MacDougal, insists Edinburgh are fully concentrated on tomorrow’s Clan clash, but when pressed on what they have to do to have success against third-placed Steelers on Sunday (face-off 6pm), he said: “You have to respect their skill level, we need to take away their time and space, the more of that their talented guys have the more ways they are going to find to beat you.

“We know what kind of effort we need to bring to give ourselves a chance of success this weekend and that’s all we are working towards right now. Tomorrow’s game is a big one, that’s our main concern and then we’ll shift our focus to Sunday after that.”