Murrayfield Racers crush Dundee Tigers to book spot in Scottish Cup final

Edinburgh Racers defeated Dundee Tigers 7-2. Pic: Ian Coyle

Murrayfield Racers cruised into the Scottish Cup final with an emphatic 7-2 home win over Dundee Tigers in last night’s semi-final second leg.

Buoyed by last week’s NIHL North Cup final win at Whitley Warriors, and leading 3-2 from last month’s first leg on Tayside, Racers were full of confidence and dominated for the first 40 minutes, with director of hockey Tony Hand giving his entire bench plenty ice-time from the off.

Dundee had net-minder Craig Mallinson to thank for keeping the score respectable. The former Murrayfield and Edinburgh Capitals man had a fine game between the pipes for the visitors.

Racers needed an extra man on the ice to get the better of Mallinson in the opening 20 minutes, outshooting Tigers 16 to three, and scoring two power-play goals through Rihards Grigors and Callum Boyd.

Racers scored four goals in a fine second period. Garry Simpson and Rolands Dietlavs, Boyd with his second of the night, and an eighth of the season for defenceman Ethan Reid made it 6-0.

A fracas at the second-period buzzer saw Tigers start the final stanza with a five-on-three power-play opportunity and they scored just 15 seconds after the restart through Andrew Henderson. Ross Johnston fired home Tigers’ second goal of the game with six minutes to play.

Racers had the last laugh, however, 16-year-old forward Archie Holmes with a fine solo effort to round off the scoring at 54 minutes and 34 seconds.

It was a 12th goal of the season for the teenager and he said: “We played well as a team, especially in the second period when we were rattling in the goals.”

Holmes admitted the amount of ice-time the bench received last night was a surprise. “It’s not really something that was discussed but it was nice to be able to give the guys in the first two lines, who have been playing a lot recently, a bit of a rest,” he added. “It was great to get all the boys going.

“I’d been trying hard to get a goal all night, so it was nice to finally get one in there.”