Murrayfield Racers all but into Stuart Robertson Cup semi-final

The results see Racers sit top of their qualification group with four wins from four games, and with the top two teams going through, Racers will do battle with Paisley Pirates home and away in their final two group games to see who will earn top spot going into the knockout phase.

Tonight saw Racers give plenty of ice time to their younger players, including a start between the pipes for 16-year-old goalie Harry Elder, who made a great double-save in the 37th minute to ensure he ended his debut with a shutout. Whilst at the other end Thunder netminder Malcolm Anderson made more tham a save a minute in his 40 minutes of action, and fully deserved the man-of-the-match award for the visitors with the final shots on goal count 77 to seven in Racers favour.

Racers man-of-the match, Lewis Gold, led the rout with five goals, there were doubles for Joel Gautschi, Callum Boyd and Sean Donaldson, whilst Michael Ireland, Alex Christian and Ross Borwick also got on the scoresheet.

Racers are next in action on Sunday, entertaining Solway Sharks in the NIHL North Cup, and assistant coach Jock Hay admitted that such a one sided affair was not the best preparation going into what promises to be a tough test for the Edinburgh outfit.

Hay said: “Tonight doesn’t really do anything for us going in to such a tough game next week. With games like that it’s easy to get into bad habits which could easily carry on into our next game. All the coaching we did throughout the week, and during the game tonight, was trying to ensure we kept making smart plays.

“We’re going from one end of the spectrum to the other within a week and its going to be a really difficult game for us, probably one of our biggest tests of of the season.”