EIHL Fans Nation: Road to the play-offs.... final day of the regular season, 10 teams, 8 spots...

The fight for the play-off spots ends tonight. A fantastic EIHL regular season comes to an end in style with dramatic action to come as the fate of Coventry Blaze, Cardiff Devils, Hull Stingrays and Fife Flyers will be decided to see which three of the four sides makes the final showdown post-season quarter finals! Already in the play-off quarter finals are: Nottingham Panthers, Belfast Giants, Sheffield Steelers Dundee stars and Braehead Clan! The only confirmed match-up is Panthers vs Clan which will take place this Thursday in Nottingham then Saturday Braehead with the winner going to final four weekend on April 5th/6th!

Saturday scores (23rd March 2014)

Belfast Giants 5-3 Nottingham Panthers:

These two teams who had faced in the challenge cup final first leg the previous night, iced their back-up goalies in their final league game of the season. Dan Green(Panthers) and Andrew Dickson(Giants) started between the pipes to get more experience along with giving starting goalies (Stephen Murphy [Giants] and Craig Kowalski [Panthers] ) a rest. Both net-minders were outstanding but Giants pulled through and won in front of their biggest crowd of the season! 7,028

Braehead Clan 4-5 Fife Flyers (S.O)

Desperate for a play-off spot, Flyers dominated Clan in the opening two periods leading 3-0 at one point but got a fright when a stunning comeback from Clan saw them 4-3 up in the dying minutes. Flyers got back on level terms and one goal in the shoot-out proved the winner as play-off chasers Fife boosted their confidence and can almost taste the play-off spot!

Dundee Stars 3-1 Edinburgh Capitals

Celebrating their conference championship, Stars looked to prepare for the play-offs in style and did just that, against Edinburgh Capitals who played their final road game of not only the regular season, but the season as a whole as they will not compete in the play-offs due to not being able catch up to eighth on points. 1 goal a period gave stars the win and one for caps in the second period proved to be not enough!

Sheffield Steelers 2-0 Coventry Blaze
Coventry Blaze play-off push looked promising against already qualified Sheffield Steelers for the first two periods but a third period goal from Dustin Kohn then Maxime Lacroix striking, Steelers won their final home league game of the season with a shut-out for Frank Doyle.

Tonights games...

Coventry Blaze vs Cardiff Devils:

The biggest game tonight is this one. Both looking for the play-off places, these teams will battle it out for their chances of success. This is a huge game. Blaze look strong but will Cardiff get to an 11th play-offs in a row. Their fans are wearing pajamas for the game too so should be fun!

Sheffield Steelers vs Hull Stingrays:

Hull Stingrays will end with another massive game to decide their outcome. It'll certainly be tough but these teams have big history with each other. Recently especially. As you may know, Rays are capable of winning so lets see what happens!

Edinburgh Capitals vs Dundee Stars:

Sadly, we say goodbye to caps tonight for this season as they will not be able to make post-season hockey. Stars are already going to the play-offs so this game has no mean but will be the last time we see caps until September.

Fife Flyers vs Braehead Clan:

The most determined team to qualify are the Flyers by the looks of recent form, even doing the impossible (Aka beating Belfast Giants). They play their final league game finishing a double header in vital fashion against Braehead Clan at home!