Newcastle Mobilx Vipers 4, Edinburgh Capitals 2

Oct 25 2007 The Journal

THE Vipers got back to winning ways in front of the Sky Sports TV cameras with victory over basement team Capitals in the Elite League last night.

The win came the hard way with Capitals taking a two-goal lead and Newcastle without forward Jeff Hutchins, who had a groin injury.

Capitals went ahead after five minutes. Vipers lost possession and Martin Cingel fired low to the left of Ryan MacDonald. Two minutes later Colin Hemingway skated past two Vipers defencemen to score with ease.

Vipers got on to the score sheet on the powerplay three minutes later, Derek Campbell latching on to a rebound after captain David Longstaff had seen his shot come off a post.

Andre Payette and Adam Stefishaw came to blows in the 26th minute and both were despatched to the penalty box with five-minute fighting penalties.

Then Newcastle scored twice in 31 seconds to go 3-2 ahead, Campbell tying the scores with Perras screened by one of his own defencemen.

The go-ahead goal came from Payette who from close range forced the puck over the line with the puck going over the stick of Perras.

The third altercation of the game came at 34.50 when Perras and Longstaff were exchanging blows. A melee followed with Stefishaw coming in and he was taken out by Johnson to fend him off.

Longstaff and Perras received double minors while Stefishaw was ejected on a game misconduct for being third man in.

Seven seconds later Campbell went with Capitals player-coach Dave Christianson and they both received five minute major penalties.

Newcastle increase their lead four minutes into the final period with them short-handed.

Todd Jackson received the puck from a pass out by MacDonald, then skated down the left and cut across and produced a fine backhand across Perras into the corner.

Edinburgh still had chances, but Newcastle managed to cope with anything that they could throw at them.

Campbell and Dino Bauba had an altercation with four minutes to go and received minor penalties with Newcastle coming out with a two-minute powerplay.

Newcastle consolidated their position in third place behind Coventry Blaze and Sheffield Steelers.

In the only other Elite League match played, Nottingham Panthers defeated Basingstoke Bison 5-2.

NEWCASTLE MOBILX VIPERS: Derek Campbell 2+0, Andrew Payette and Todd Jackson 1+1, Colin Shields 0+3, David Longstaff 0+2, Shaun Johnson and Ryan MacDonald 0+1.