RYAN CRANE won his coach's player-of-the-year award and there's no doubt the ice hockey defenceman will have a key role in Edinburgh Capitals' play-off double-header with hot favourites Coventry Blaze this weekend.
Doug Christiansen, the club's director of coaching, selected the Canadian as his top performer over the past season.
Meanwhile, Crane, 27, doesn't believe that it's fantasy to think the low-budget outfit can shoot down their big-spending opponent
s to reach the final four in the Elite League play-offs.
The first leg is at Murrayfield on Saturday (6.00pm) with the second in the Midlands on Sunday.
Capitals secured the eighth and final place with an impressive 2-1 road win at Sheffield Steelers on Saturday and Crane, a product of the East Coast Hockey League, said: "We didn't want to leave it down to the last game against Basingstoke Bison at Murrayfield on Sunday and we played hard in Sheffield.
"Sheffield played great but we took it to them the whole game. Colin (Hemingway] claimed two goals and on Sunday it was kind of like a fun game as Basingstoke knew they could not qualify.
"However, we still wanted to stay sharp and didn't want bad habits going into the play-offs."
Capitals won 11-7 – their biggest score of the season – and Crane said: "We scored a lot of goals and made the fans happy.
"I took a rest for the last seven minutes as it has been a long season.
"Some of the other key guys also rested for the final minutes and it was nice to have that before we get ready for Coventry.
"They're a good team but we match-up well against them. They have some great forwards and, as long as we stay out of the penalty box, we should be okay against them."
Coventry may not have No.1 net-minder Trevor Koenig between the pipes because of injury, but the rugged defenceman from Mississauga, Ontario, said: "That does not matter.
"Their back-up is also pretty good and we can't worry about that. We have to focus on our game and play strong in our zone.
They also have some good forwards and the last couple of games we shut them down and we have to keep doing that. (Neil] Martin and (Jonathan] Weaver play well defensively but they also carry an offensive threat.
"Our job is to stay out of the penalty box and if we play five-on-five we can complete with any team in this league."
The goal-scoring defenceman, who has caught the eye with a consistent series of no-nonsense games this season, added: "I don't think it's fantasy to think we can make the final four. We beat Coventry three times this year and none of us are looking at the fixture as if we're done for the season.
"It would be great to make the final four. We'll have a week of practice and we'll come out hard and ready to win.
"We struggled early on but we've been playing good hockey for the last three months and our goal is to make it to the party in Nottingham.
"If we put together two good games then you never know what will happen." Capitals will have to do it without youngsters Sean Donaldson and Slovakian Martin Tlaajka.
The pair iced in Sunday's win over Basingstoke Bison, which completed the Murrayfield men's regular season programme and Donaldson scored a fine goal late on.
But the pair can't ice in the post-season play-offs because they have not played in four regular season games.
Christiansen, however, hopes to have Iain Bowie back from international duty with Great Britain's under-18 side in Estonia.
He said: "Iain scored three goals in the first game and two in the second so he's doing well.
"We hope to have him back for the weekend but much depends on how Great Britain perform."
The full article contains 678 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
