Murrayfield Racers leave Dundee Comets trailing
The thumping victory was in marked contrast to their performance 24 hours earlier when, once again, Racers found the step up in class to the UK-wide National Ice Hockey League too hard to handle, thrashed 11-1 at home by Hull Pirates in the group stages of the NIHL North Cup.
Racers Director of Hockey, Tony Hand, was disappointed after Saturday’s performance, but was a far happier man after his side blew open what had been a tight 1-1 game with Dundee after 40 minutes, scoring seven goals in a deadly ten-minute spell at the beginning of the third period.
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Hide AdHand said: “We went to sleep on Saturday against a really good team, we needed a reaction after that both for ourselves in the dressing room, and our fans. I thought the guys dug deep tonight when they needed it and scored some nice goals.
“This was a huge game, probably our biggest of the season so far. We know Dundee are going to be up there at the end of the year so it was a very important two points for us and that was the best third period we’ve played all season.
“I was especially pleased for our young players, I thought they were terrific tonight.”
After a goalless first period in which Racers, who hit early penalty trouble, were out-shot 18 to seven, Comets player-coach John Dolan gave the visitors the lead in the 23rd minute. However, Racers’ experienced import Martin Cingel tied the game 30 seconds later scoring on a break-away.
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Hide AdRacers stunned Dundee with three goals in the opening two minutes of the third period, through Michael Ireland, a first of the season for recent signing Sean Donaldson, and a second of the game for Cingel.
Dolan, with a terrific solo goal, made it 4-2 in the 44th minute, and 16-year-old Racers’ blue-liner Ethan Reid scored two goals less than a minute apart to put the game beyond the Taysiders.
Racers, now playing full of confidence, weren’t finished there, and Cingel completed his hat-trick with a cheeky wrap-around. Joel Gautschi scored an almost identical goal to make it 8-2 and complete the scoring with ten minutes to play.