ICE HOCKEY: Elite League: Coventry Blaze 4, Edinburgh Capitals 1; Nottingham Panthers 7, Cardiff Devils 4.
EDINBURGH Capitals hopes of a play-off place suffered a blow when they were beaten 4-1 at fellow-strugglers Coventry Blaze.
Michal Dobron’s men opened the scoring in the vital Elite League basement clash when Ian Schultz netted after 4min 58sec on the power play with Jacob Johnston and Michal D’Orazio assisting.
But Blaze hit the visitors with four unanswered goals to take the vital two points. The home side were back on level terms after nine minutes when Robin Bergman scored.
Three home goals between the 22nd minute and 44th minute settled the game and put Coventry back into the eighth and final play-off spot.
Matt Marquardt netted the first and Pietrus followed up six minutes later for No 3.
And T J Syner slotted the final goal four minutes into the final session to move Coventry onto 37 points from 45 games.
Capitals have 29 points from 41 fixtures but the defeat could prove costly in the play-off race.
Dundee Stars slip back to ninth position with 36 points from 43 outings.
At the other end of the table, Nottingham Panthers edged long-time league pace-setters, Cardiff Devils, 7-4 to give second-placed Belfast Giants some hope of catching the Welshmen.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
