By Kris Smith
Stars travelled to the Scottish Capital with redemption on their minds after being shutout 5-0 by the Guildford Flames on Saturday night.
They also wanted to break their two game losing streak against the Caps. It had been nearly two months since they last met.
Justin Fox and Jordan Cownie joined the injury list with the three current injured players and Riley Stadel came back into the line-up after missing last night’s league clash. Pavel Vorobyev was out injured after sustaining a lower-body injury in Glasgow last night and the Robertson brothers, Aaron and Calum were on SNL duty in Paisley.
Dundee had an early chance but Pavel Shegalo was ready to make the save and denied the road team of an quick lead. Both teams started to look dangerous as they both went close but the game remained scoreless. The game had little stoppages a as the clock was running down Emerson Hrynyk almost found Gabriel Lévesque on a breakaway but the puck slipped past the Canadian and into the glove of the Caps goalie.
Johan Andersson put Stars ahead after he fired his shot under Shegalo’s blocker at 9:26. Dundee had several chances to double the lead but the Caps would not let themselves fall further behind. Both keepers were starting to be tested with difficult shots but made the big saves when it counted.
Cam McGiffin picked up a four minute double-minor for accidental high sticks, putting the home side on a long powerplay. They quickly ended up on a 5-on-3 powerplay when Riley Stadel’s clearance went over the glass and he served a two-minute delay of game penalty.
The Caps powerplay didn’t have a good record before tonight but that did not stop them punishing Dundee three times on the man advantage. Juris Upitis, Konstantin Teslyukevich and Dylan Anderson’s powerplay goals put Edinburgh 3-1 up in less than two minutes. 33 seconds later Sergei Banashkov’s shot trickled through the five-hole of Travis Fullerton to make it 4-1 before the end of the first period.
Brian Hart quickly brought the score line back to 4-2 just 47 seconds into the second period as his effort bounced before going over the pad of Shegalo. Dundee went close once more but this time the Caps goalie made the save. Stars continued their good pressure when they got their first powerplay but a brief altercation after the whistle resulted in penalties for both teams and Dundee lost their man advantage, as it became a 4-on-4 situation.
Marc-Olivier Mimar pulled another back for Dundee when he picked up a shorthanded goal on the breakaway at 26:45. Both teams would get another man advantage but it was once again the Capitals who made it count. After killing off Dundee’s powerplay and losing Jay King to an injury, Mike Cazzola was found at the backdoor for a tap in and Edinburgh’s fourth powerplay goal of the night and restoring their two-goal lead at 34:11.
The home side held a 5-3 lead going into the final break and Omar Pacha was hoping for another quick goal when play resumed for the third. However it did not come despite another
powerplay chance when the Dundee coach was roughed up by Nikita Kolesnikov. Jimmy Jensen rattled the crossbar and Lévesque’s one-timer was denied from point blank range before the penalty expired.
Neil Wilson penalised Lévesque for holding the opponents stick but he the Canadian protested that it was just caught in his glove, yet Edinburgh went back on the powerplay. Hrynyk almost pulled it back to 5-4 but his effort hit the post, from this Dundee built some pressure but another altercation behind the Caps goal led to a few penalties after Kolesnikovs came in hard and throwing punches at Jensen.
Hrynyk wasted no time in stepping in and also dropped the gloves but the linesmen would not let them work it out. Both received a ten minute misconduct for dropping the gloves and would miss the final five minutes of the game, Dundee pulled their goalie but still could not find the two crucial goals they needed.
The game ended with Edinburgh extending their winning streak against Dundee to three games, Mimar and Banashkov were rewarded as the ‘Man of the Match’ winners.
Dundee now have to find a way to get back to beating the top sides in the Elite League, they have beat three of the top five with a chance to make it four when they take on the fourth placed Sheffield Steelers in the final league match between the sides this season at the DIA.
Face-off is at 7:30pm on Wednesday night.
Photo Credit: Ian Coyle
