Tonight: Full Saturday of league action

Photo: William Cherry

After a packed Christmas and New Year schedule it's back to the regular format of weekend fixtures in the Elite Ice Hockey League. All ten teams are in action twice in the next 48 hours.

1900 Belfast Giants vs. Coventry Blaze

The last time Belfast and Coventry met the Blaze took a 6-3 win in the Skydome, Danny Stewart's men's first win over the Giants this season. Back at the start of November the sides played a home and home series with the Giants winning both and means that Coventry are still without a win in Belfast since October 2016.

Both sides had a decent holiday period. Belfast won three of four despite the disappointing home loss to Dundee; while Coventry took four points out of eight against Cardiff and Nottingham, although their performances perhaps deserved more. The Blaze have still yet to lose by more than a goal since new netminder CJ Motte joined the side shortly before Christmas.

"We have a big weekend against Coventry who had a good win in their last game and are coming in off some very good performances. We owe our home crowd a solid performance." - Adam Keefe (Head Coach, Belfast Giants) 

"We've proved that we can beat anyone and play with anybody. Our focus is one game at a time and keeping these performances up. We had some bad luck against in a few games but if you keep focussing on the process you'll get more results that you don't." - Danny Stewart (Head Coach, Coventry Blaze)

1900 Manchester Storm vs. Cardiff Devils

Cardiff's second trip of the season to Manchester comes after a heavy 5-0 home loss to Coventry after New Year.

The Storm meanwhile are on a decent roll thanks to taking three out of four points against Guildford this week, and have clawed their way up to being level on points with Fife in the last playoff place.

"Four in five is a pretty tough stretch, and it doesn't get any easier now with Cardiff coming in. To hold a team like Guildford to one goal in their own game is pretty good and we have to build on that." - Ryan Finnerty (Head Coach, Manchester Storm)

"We obviously had a good stretch of hockey and have been good as of late. I'd seen some signs of the game against Coventry and, unfortunately, it came to fruition. Ultimately we're judging one game at a time and that wasn't good enough, but now we go to Manchester to put that right against a team that have pushed us very hard in our own building this season several times." - Andrew Lord (Head Coach, Cardiff Devils)

1900 Nottingham Panthers vs. Dundee Stars

Two teams that are in form meet at the Motorpoint Arena, although their league positions are quite different.

Two overtime wins against Coventry plus one in Sheffield means that Nottingham came out of the festive period with six points from eight, and are slowly consolidating their position in the league's top four. 

It was Nottingham's win in Dundee before Christmas that marked a turnaround for Omar Pacha's side - pleased with his team's performance that night, the Stars went on to win three games from four over the holiday period to get themselves back into contention for the playoffs. They now trail Fife by just three points compared to nine a fortnight ago.

"We have two games this weekend and our goal is to win them both to keep climbing the table. It'll be two different styles of games but we have to adjust like every other team. You just have to take every day by itself because there's a lot of hockey ahead now in January." - Jason DeSantis (Defenseman, Nottingham Panthers)

"Overall we have been improving, we still have some to keep getting better in but I can't fault any of the performances in the past week weeks. This will be another big test to see how far we've come." - Omar Pacha (Head Coach, Dundee Stars)

1900 Sheffield Steelers vs. Guildford Flames

League leaders Sheffield know that they can't be knocked off the top for at least another game day thanks to their overtime point they rescued at home to Nottingham on New Year's Day - and Cardiff losing.

Seven points from eight during the Christmas period was an impressive return for the Steelers who continue to keep putting points on the board to stay ahead despite their obvious superiority in games played. 

Guildford went into the busy post-Christmas schedule with the top three in their sights - but only one win from those games against Cardiff and Manchester combined leaves them back in fifth. It's been almost 14 months since the Flames' last win in Sheffield.

"We took seven points from eight in the last four games and I liked how we didn't give up against Nottingham to earn ourselves a point out of it. The guys have been working very hard and now we go into another busy weekend against two very dangerous teams." - Aaron Fox (Head Coach, Sheffield Steelers)

"Sometimes as a player you like a busy schedule because it doesn't give you much time to think about things, especially coming off a loss. We continue working on the things we've been good at and where we need to improve and make sure we're ready for the games this weekend." - Paul Dixon (Head Coach, Guildford Flames)

1915 Fife Flyers vs. Glasgow Clan

Scottish hostilities are resumed in Kirkcaldy for the visit of Glasgow who beat Fife in Braehead over Hogmanay. 

It was a thoroughly disappointing set of games for the Flyers, who also lost both matches against Dundee to fall further towards dropping out of the playoffs altogether. Their worrying run of form has extended to just two wins in their last 10 games.

Glasgow ended their run of losses with that win over the Flyers, but themselves only have three wins in their last 10 starts. The Clan are three points higher than their hosts tonight having played a game less - but a defeat could see Zack Fitzgerald's team dragged further back into the playoff race.