Ice hockey – battling Capitals edged by Clan

Scottish Elite Cup: semi-final: Braehead Clan 4, Edinburgh Capitals 2; Fife Flyers 6, Dundee Stars 2 (at Murrayfield).

Braehead Clan will face Fife Flyers on Sunday (6.30pm) in the final of the inaugural Scottish Elite Cup.

The Glasgow side, who won the Gardiner Conference title last season, edged hosts Edinburgh Capitals 4-2 in a high-tempo semi-final at Murrayfield.

Earlier, Fife Flyers thrashed Dundee Stars 6-2 in the other semi-final.

Scott Neil, Capitals’ co-owner, said: “There were lots of positives but we lost a game we were hoping we could win and make the final.”

Capitals forced the pace in the opening session but went into the dressing-room 2-0 down following goals from Mike Embach and Jacob Doty.

The hosts pulled one back 61 seconds into the second session from Sergei Banashkov but Clan went 3-1 ahead four minutes later when Richard Hartmann, a former Capitals player and coach, netted.

And they made it 4-1 on the power play when Landon Oslanski scored in the 49th minute.

Igor Valeyev scored a second five minutes after that as Capitals upped the pace in search of a way back into the game but Clan kept their cool.

Earlier, Todd Dutiaume praised his team after their convincing 6-2 victory over arch rivals Dundee Stars in the first semi-final of the inaugural Scottish Elite Cup at Murrayfield.

Fife Flyers’ coach has recruited young, enthusiastic players this season and they controlled the game from start to finish.

Flyers led 2-0 thanks to goals from Danick Gauthier and Chase Schaber inside the first eight minutes.

Dundee pulled one back through former Nottingham Panthers defenceman Chris Lawrence 23 minutes later but Fife moved 3-1 ahead through Liam Heelis only 13 seconds later and Carlo Finucci and Ricards Birzins increased the lead to 5-1 after 43 minutes.

Johan Andersson pulled one back after 54 minutes but three minutes later Russ Moyer popped in Flyers sixth to completed the scoring.

Dutiaume said: “It was a pretty solid team performance and we wanted to come out and impress against one of our closest rivals and I thought we did that.

“The work rate is there and it is an enthusiastic group to work with.”

He added: “Last time we were in a competition similar to this we won it and it is a great way to kick off the season.”