Knee injury could rule Caps keeper Tyler Beskorowany out for season

With less than a month of Edinburgh Capitals' Elite League campiagn to run, star goalie Tyler Beskorowany may have played his last game of the season.
Tyler Beskorowany. Pic: Ian CoyleTyler Beskorowany. Pic: Ian Coyle
Tyler Beskorowany. Pic: Ian Coyle

Beskorowany, who joined the club at the turn of the year, sustained a knee injury just three minutes into Sunday’s 10-2 home loss to Elite League leaders Cardiff Devils and player-coach Michael D’Orazio admits initial diagnosis “doesn’t look too good” for the former Dallas Stars draft pick.

Teenage stopper Jordan McLaughlin has been given the nod ahead of Edinburgh’s only game this weekend against Nottingham Panthers at Murrayfield tomorrow (face-off 6pm) and D’Orazio said: “Tyler’s getting an MRI. I don’t think it’s looking too good. Even being optimistic, I can’t see Besko being back in the line-up for at least the next two weeks.

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“I told Jordan early in the week he’ll be our starter, so have a good week in practice, make sure you’re sharp and keep your work ethic high.

Jordan McLaughlinJordan McLaughlin
Jordan McLaughlin

“A back-up goalie goalie should always be ready to play, and he’s known for a while, but we’ve had a pre-scout on Nottingham – who are their left handed shots, who’s scoring their goals plus where and when. So he can look at that and get ready. Things like that will help him prepare for the game.”

With only 11 games of the regular season remaining, three of which will be against seventh-placed Panthers, D’Orazio admits last week’s run of fixtures, that saw Edinburgh travel 800 miles and play four games in five nights, exhausted his small squad.

Despite the fixture congestion, Capitals did manage to snap a nine-game losing streak with a 4-2 win in Belfast last Saturday and D’Orazio continued: “To have just the one game this weekend is nice. We needed some rest. A lot of guys were playing big minutes and we had four games in five nights so it was pretty tough.

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“Considering the circumstances, I was happy with how the guys battled throughout, and on Saturday we got rewarded. We played a full 60 minutes, obviously Besko made some good saves, but all-in-all we played very well defensively, collapsed the middle, and didn’t give away much in the slot. That was our game plan and we executed it well. It was a great team win, especially against a top team like Belfast.

Jordan McLaughlinJordan McLaughlin
Jordan McLaughlin

“I gave the guys Monday and Tuesday off and told them to stay away from the rink. Wednesday we started skating, and have been ramping up the intensity ahead of our game tomorrow.

“Nottingham are a pretty good team, we’ve just faced them the once so far this year and I wasn’t playing that game, but I’ve watched them on video. They’re very physical and run the cycle well in the offensive zone, which is something we struggle against so we’ll have to shore that up. They’re underachieving this year, and they’re not happy with their performance so they will be coming here to work hard. We’ll have to match that and help Jordan out in the ‘D’ zone as much as we can.

“We’re expecting Sergei Banashkov and Callum Boyd in the line-up (who both return from injury) but Jay King (who picked up an injury in Belfast) will miss out.”