MICHAL Dobron reshuffled his attacking options and it came up trumps as Edinburgh Capitals skated to a convincing 8-2 victory over misfiring Coventry Blaze.
The experienced coach is almost certain to ask for the same again from his squad and he hopes the chemistry works for a second time when the Murrayfield men entertain high-flying Sheffield Steelers in the Challenge Cup, quarter-final, first-leg at Murrayfield on Wednesday (7pm).
One beneficiary of the playcaller’s changes on Sunday was American-born Taylor MacDougall who claimed his first hat-trick as a professional ice hockey player.
The 26-year-old former University of New Brunswick star’s goals one in each period – helped snap a depressing four-game losing streak in the Elite League for the Murrayfield men.
MacDougall admitted: “I got some bounces but we needed some momentum coming into two big Challenge Cup games this week.”
The second-leg is at Ice Sheffield, who are second in the ten-strong Elite League, on Saturday and the 6ft 3in hit-man is aware of what is in store.
Capitals, whose win over Coventry moved them off the bottom of the league table, lost 6-5 after penalty shots when the sides met in the league at Murrayfield in a nerve-tingling cracker on 5 November.
The home side were 4-0 and 5-1 down but claimed four straight goals to take it to an extra period and then a shootout.
It’s Capitals biggest game of the season so far and MacDougall said: “We need to build on some of the habits we showed against Coventry.
“We were much more solid defensively and, playing a team like Sheffield, that’s the first building block, you need to be solid in your own end and go from there.”
Steelers have some doubts over Swedish forward Yared Hagos (cor) who was hurt in Sunday’s 5-1 home win over Belfast Giants and their Latvian goaltender Ervins Mustukovs remembers their last visit to the Riversdale rink.
He said: “It was an away game and it was difficult when they scored goals. At home it is easier to defend.
“The Challenge Cup is a good competition to win.”
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