Edinburgh Capitals twice crushed by Belfast Giants

Edinburgh Capitals' head coach Riley Emmerson admits he had sympathy for referee Dean Smith over his Friday overtime faux-pas - but insists that did not help his team.

The Caps and Belfast Giants ended Friday's Challenge Cup tie on a 3-3 draw, but Smith instead drew a close to the game rather than go to overtime, as per the rules.

It meant before Saturday's league meeting between the teams, an extra period had to be played, which the Northern Irish side duly won.

Emmerson was feeling somewhat disappointed and believes the Giants' clinching Friday's result gave them momentum for Saturday's game.

He said: "I spoke to the referee and told him he had to play overtime, but he was adamant we didn't, so we found out the next day we had to play at the start of the next game.

"Whoever was going to win that overtime period was going to go on and win the league game that followed after and it was a crazy circumstance.

"I had a little bit of sympathy after he owned up to his mistake, but it still sucks for us and you've got to deal with the adversity and move on."

After Giants' Kris Beech settled Friday's game 24 hours later, his team went on to take the league points in a 5-2 victory.

James Desmarais put Belfast two up before Craig McCallum pulled one back for the Caps, with Mike Forney restoring the Giants' two-goal advantage soon after.

Everett Sheen gave the Caps hope with an excellent shorthanded goal, only for Forney to add his second of the night followed by Jonathan Boxill to finish the job.

Fife Flyers flying

The Caps returned home and found Fife Flyers waiting on their doorstep to finish the weekend, but it was the Kirkcaldy men that took the points in a 3-2 overtime victory.

Ryan Hayes put the Caps in front, but Ryan Dingle found his way to goal before Danny Stewart added a second, putting Flyers into the lead.

Emmerson got the equaliser to take the game to overtime, but Patrick Cullen settled things in the extra period.

As for Fife, it was two wins from two in the weekend as they defeated Dundee Stars 5-2 in their home game on Saturday night.

There was a burst of goals in the second period as Shayne Stockton and Kevin Hart cancelled each other out before Jeff Lee put Flyers ahead.

TJ Caig increased Fife's advantage, only for Doug Clarkson to reduce the arrears, but Cullen and Dingle made it 5-2 for the home side.

No excuses from Braehead Clan

Dundee recovered with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Braehead Clan on Sunday to inflict the first defeat on Ryan Finnerty's men in the regular season.

Mikael Lidhammer opened the scoring in the opening five minutes of the first period with Bobby Chaumont adding a second to make life difficult for his former team.

Matt Keith managed to pull one back seven minutes into the third period and a fight-back seemed on in the final stages, but it was nothing more than a consolation.

It was a low-key end to the weekend for the Clan, especially after coming away from Cardiff Devils on Saturday with a point in a 5-4 defeat.

Clan had the lead first in this topsy-turvy game as Brendan Brooks opened the scoring, but Cardiff levelled through player-coach Andrew Lord before Carl Hudson put the Devils ahead.

Stefan Meyer squared it for the Clan, but the hosts edged in front again through Brent Walton, with Ben Davies restoring parity again for the Glasgow side.

Former Clan favourite Leigh Salters struck with a backhand finish, only for Chris Bruton to tie the game at 4-4, setting up a grandstand finish, where Doucet confirmed the Devils' victory.

Clan's head coach Ryan Finnerty refused to use the excuse of travelling from Cardiff to Dundee as a reason for his team's disappointing loss on Tayside.

He said: "The easy excuse would be to use the travelling because it's the longest anyone can make in this league.

"I was disappointed with the Dundee result, but happier to get the point in Cardiff at a tough rink in front of a tough crowd and we battled for the point.

"Then going into Sunday, we just weren't at the game at all. We were poor clinically and didn't have any part of our game. Overall, we were disappointing all around."

Weekend results:

Friday

Belfast Giants 4-3 Edinburgh Capitals OT (Challenge Cup)

Saturday

Belfast Giants 5-2 Edinburgh Capitals (League)

Cardiff Devils 5-4 Braehead Clan OT (League)

Fife Flyers 5-2 Dundee Stars (Challenge Cup)

Sunday

Dundee Stars 2-1 Braehead Clan (Challenge Cup)

Edinburgh Capitals 2-3 Fife Flyers OT (Challenge Cup)