Edinburgh Capitals chief blames injuries after double loss to Dundee

It was their second hiding of the weekend from the Taysiders after they were swept aside 10-2 at Murrayfield 24 hours earlier.

It’s now 18 straight defeats for a team that in happier times had taken six points out of eight from league title favourites Sheffield Steelers, but the level of performance last night in Dundee devalued Edinburgh’s participation in the ten-strong top tier of British ice hockey.

When that sentiment was put to team co-owner Scott Neil, he answered: “That is simply not fair. There are a number of teams in this league who would not have been able to cope with the amount of season-ending injuries we’ve had.

“You can’t define a season on this weekend alone. The team that we signed in the summer went on a record-breaking winning run at home and beat the now title favourites three times.

“You are looking at a shell of that team now with five guys out injured and we lost Brandon Thompson after a period last night. I hope he is going to be fit in time to face Braehead for our final two games of the season this weekend.”

In what was always going to be a one-sided contest, with Edinburgh only icing eight players who would have made the team sheet when the season got under way last September, Stars got on the board after only 26 seconds through Justin Faryna, and added further first-period goals through John Dolan, Lou Dickenson and Mikael Lidhammar.

The second period was no different with further Dundee goals courtesy of Lou Dickenson, Scott Brannon, Faryna, and Dolan although Edinburgh’s Garrett Milan almost broke Stars’ keeper Trevor Koenig’s shut out when he hit the post on a short-handed break-away.

Koenig was replaced by back-up goalie Craig Holland for the last 20 minutes, and the former Capitals man was beaten by Edinburgh top-scorer Trevor Gerling in the 43rd minute, and a first of the season for Capitals defenceman Tyler Plews.

Despite Stars’ huge lead the shots still rained down on Caps’ goalie Kevin Forshall who started both matches this weekend in place of regular No.1 Carsen Chubak, who has been playing through the pain barrier for months with a lower body injury. Dundee added five goals in the final period, including a double for impressive forward Ben Edmonds who is just 17.

Neil continued: “You are not going to hear me criticising anybody over these two defeats after we have been battling away so short benched for weeks.”