Elite League Edinburgh Capitals 2, Braehead Clan 7
INJURY-HIT Edinburgh Capitals slipped to their fifth straight defeat on Tuesday night and the 7-2 home defeat to Braehead Clan could have given coach Michal Dobron another major injury headache.
Jared Staal was sent crashing to the ice after a flare-up with Clan star Corey Cowick near the end of the second period.
He was helped from the ice after a delay of several minutes as the rink doctor was called and it appeared that he suffered a facial injury.
Cowick could be in hot water after being thrown out of the Elite League clash as he has recently returned from a lengthy ban and dropped his gloves and appeared to punch Staal.
Clan won 7-2 with Scott Pitt netting a double and their were singles from Matt Keith, Mike Hammond, Daniel Aasberg and Callum Boyd plus a penalty shot from Matt Beca.
Boyd had another penalty shot saved by Capitals’ No 1 netminder Travis Fullerton who appeared to be struggling with a wrist injury which sidelined him for the double-header at Belfast Giants last week.
Matt Tipoff shocked Clan fans by opening the scoring after 1min 36sec but Clan then took control with four unanswered goals.
Dobron scored with a wicked slapshot from near the blue line for injury-hit Capitals but Clan then claimed three straight goals, two in the final three minutes.
Capitals were outgunned and outshot, Fullerton receiving 39 shots (12-13-14) while Michal Zajowski received 27 (6-12-9).
And Dobron’s men will have to regroup ahead of Saturday’s home clash with Fife Flyers (face-off 4pm) as they can’t afford to let the rest open a bigger gap which currently is three points.
Photo courtesy of Ian Coyle
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
