Double Overtime, Feb 9th...

On we go then, looking back at a weekend which had a pair of see-saw games and a cure for insomnia on the same night...

Next time, Vipers fans, just buy some sleeping tablets: Newcastle v Hull is never going to be one of the glamour fixtures in the league, but by all accounts Saturday's meeting at the MRA was a spectacularly boring example of the fixture. The Stingrays ground out a 2-1 win with Jeff Glowa scoring with five minutes to go, but perhaps the true measure of the game are the comments made on THF along the lines of "I'm a Vipers fan, but when Glowa scored I cheered as loud as anyone. Why? Because it meant there was no chance of overtime and we could get out of there"

Ouch.

No danger of falling asleep in Sheffield, though...: The Hallam Arena was one of the places to be on Sunday night as Sheffield and Belfast fought out an enthralling 4-3 OT win for the Steelers, with the Giants earning a point despite being without their entire top line due to injury. I was being updated while watching Coventry-Cardiff, and the texts were coming thick and fast as the momentum swung back and forth-in fact, no team managed to pull more than a goal ahead in the match, with scoring alternating all the way up to Scott Basiuk's winner as first Belfast went to 1-0 and 2-1, then Steelers scored twice, and looked comfortable until Evan Cheverie ensured the game would go to overtime. Stevie Lyle is possibly the first player to earn his team's MoM and then be ejected from the game, as he received a game penalty post-game for abuse of an official, continuing to vehemently dispute Basiuk's goal after the awards...

Or in Coventry...: At the Skydome, meanwhile, the Blaze-Devils game delivered its usual high-drama, particularly in a crazy six-goals-in-six-minutes spell at the end of the second period (look at the ih-update page if you don't believe me) which also saw Brad Voth thrown out for a nasty-looking check on Dan Carlson as he attempted to get the Devils back in the game. The score went from 2-0 Devils to 6-4 Blaze in one period, which must see some sort of EIHL record for the number of goals scored in a period....
After the madness of the second, the third period saw the Blaze settle down and do what they had failed to do in Manchester the previous night in making a comeback stick...

That's the monkey off your backs, lads: Which brings me nicely on to Manchester's weekend. In their only game the Phoenix finally came out on the right side of a close game against Coventry, avenging Blaze's Great Escape the week before with a hard-fought overtime win of their own to get themselves back on the league winning trail...

Giants cut down to size by injuries: Meanwhile, it seems that the injury curse which afflicted Cardiff last year has moved across the Irish Sea. Belfast have once again lost their top line of Andrew Martin, Paul Deniset and Bobby Robins to injury, and it shows as they came pointless out of the weekend, being shut out in Cardiff on Saturday and, as mentioned above, losing to Sheffield on Sunday.

Panthers pounce on opportunities: The injury problems in Belfast have opened the door to Nottingham in the race for second, with the East Midlanders taking four points from their weekend against Edinburgh and Hull. The Edinburgh game on Saturday is notable for the extraordinary disparity in the penalties called, with the Panthers only going to the box once all night at 59:44-I'm not sure but I think they would have been the first team in the EIHL and possibly one of the very few in the world (for games in pro or semi-pro leagues) to go through a game without having a single penaly minute called on them had it not been for Matt Myers being binned for slashing. Edinburgh weren't so lucky, giving the Panthers eight powerplays and conceding on four of them in the 5-2 loss-coupled with a professional 5-1 win in Hull on Sunday, this means that they leapfrog Belfast and Coventry into second place...

Sorry Bison now just marking time: Meanwhile, it's another miserable two-loss weekend in Hampshire despite the return of Kevin Reiter between the pipes...there are strong rumours floating around the league that the Bison have already applied to move to the EPL next season-surely this season can't be over soon enough if you're a hockey fan in Basingstoke...

There you go-that's your weekend reviewed-tomorrow we'll start the build-up to the Elite League All-Star game as well as round up any happenings in the league...

Keep keeping your eye on the puck...