Back to Fife Ice Arena for our final hockey fix of the 2014/15 season and to see if the Edinburgh side could put last weeks disappointment behind them and retain the Scottish Cup. The initial signs were not encouraging when a noticeably understrength Caps side took to the ice. Even more worrying was the discovery that the missing players included the stars of last weekend, the Hay brothers, and the ever reliable Sean Donaldson, greatly reducing the team's offensive power. It crossed my mind that tiredness might become an issue in the third period. Which only proves I'm the wrong person to come to for hockey predictions....
Caps were under pressure from Dundee for much of the first period, and Comets would out shoot them nine to six. But Mallinson in goal was in great form and nothing was getting past him. As the period went on Capitals became more and more dangerous on the break which brought about a goal after fifteen minutes, Tait given an empty net to fire into after a Paterson break and shot had got the Dundee defence all crossed up. Caps kept control for the rest of the period, and ended it without any penalty minutes - a sharp contrast to last Sunday and a key factor in how the match unfolded.
The second was more of the same. Dundee had most of the shots on target, Mallinson kept on saving, and Caps got the only goal of the period. That came less than three minutes in with Joel Gautschi the scorer. Comets never seemed to have a man in the right place at the right time when it came to scoring. The biggest worry for Edinburgh came near the end of the twenty minutes when Kieran Black was floored by an illegal hit and took a while to get to his feet. Although he went off for treatment he was back on the bench within a minute and would go on to play an important part in third period events.
Did I say tired? The final twenty minutes were almost all Edinburgh. Caps found themselves with a five on three powerplay and little more than two minutes into the period Gautschi netted again, this time the assist coming from that man Black. Two more minutes before Joel was in for his hat trick. Dundee responded with their own pressure, but the same faults in front of goal were apparent, and their indiscipline began to be exposed. Just past the fifty minute mark Caps scored twice in thirty seconds. The first by Ireland, with Black again a significant factor in the build up, then Tait getting his second.
What had been a tense encounter was now defused, captain Blackburn kept them focussed and when the seconds ran down Caps were 6-0 winners of the Scottish Cup. Man of the Match award went to Mark Paterson, who certainly had an excellent game (and never seemed to stop smiling), although my own choice would have been Gautschi, not just for the goal, but as the most consistently creative man on the ice.
It's a shame so few Caps fans made the journey over the water (most of those behind us seemed to be the team's mothers!) because it was a perfect way to end off the year.
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