It’s a huge weekend for hockey as the battle for top spot ramps up and Aberdeen Lynx host the first SNL Pride game.

Running parallel to the Elite League’s Pride week, Saturday sees the Lynx take to the ice against Kirkcaldy Kestrels wearing their limited edition Pride shirts. Celebrating inclusion and diversity in the sport for both fans and players, the Aberdeen side share the message ‘Hockey is for everyone.’

Coach Jordan Leyden said,”Looking forward to being the first SNL club to do our bit for Pride. The jerseys have been extremely popular which is great to see and we hope we can follow that up with a great result.”

The team’s Pride shirts will be auctioned after the event with half of the profits from the auction being donated to LGBT+community charity Four Pillars, with the other half used to help subsidise the travel for the Lynx juniors to play Belfast.

But it won’t all be fun on Saturday for Aberdeen as they will be keen to hold on to their top spot. The last two times they played the Kestrels the score line was tight, although both games saw a win for the Lynx, they are sure not to underestimate their visitors.

Just behind the Lynx is the Edinburgh Capitals. They take on Kilmarnock Thunder at home at Murrayfield on Saturday and the pressure is on to bag the 2 points and tie at the top with the Lynx.

The Caps last meeting with the Kilmarnock side saw Thunder win 9-6. Edinburgh Capitals head coach Steven Lynch said, ‘They’re a good team who have made massive improvements year on year. We underestimated them last time we played them. We won’t be making that mistake again.’

“Every game from now until the end of the season is massive for our club, this game is no different. We’ve put ourselves in a strong position by taking 18 of the last 22 available points. Now we’ve got to move up another gear as we enter the last third of the season.”

It’s been a remarkable season for the Capitals as their rink did not reopen after Covid until November leaving the Steven Lynch’s squad with no home ice for preseason or the first few weeks of the league.

Steven commented, “It was tough. Maybe tougher than I anticipated but we knew we had the quality and character to get through a rough start with what we had to face. We just needed something to kick start our season. That ended up being the home and away wins against Whitley. Since then we’ve been playing good hockey with a lot of belief in ourselves. Hockey fans in Edinburgh are coming out in large numbers each week so they clearly believe in us too. It was a long wait to get back into Murrayfield but it’s definitely been worth it.”

Dundee sees both its home SNL teams, the Tigers and the Comets play each other in this rescheduled fixture on Saturday. 

The Tigers are just 2 points ahead of the Comets, but there really isn’t much between these two Dundee teams.  Both have won 9 league games this season with the Comets scoring a total of 82 goals and the Tigers 84. 

Who will clinch the win? It’s too close to call, but the fans are sure to be in for a great game at their home arena. 

The last game of the weekend on Sunday sees Paisley Pirates take on North Ayrshire Wild at home.

The Pirates sitting at 25 points, just three points behind the Lynx, will be hungry for the win and to creep past the Tigers.  

With such a big win last weekend they will be looking to chalk up their fourth win in a row. But North Ayrshire Wild, currently sitting at the bottom of the table with 5 points will be looking to narrow the gap between them and the top of the table.

 

WEEKEND FIXTURES

Saturday

• Dundee Tigers v Dundee Comets (7.30pm)
• Aberdeen Lynx v Kirkcaldy Kestrels (7.15pm)
• Edinburgh Capitals v Kilmarnock Thunder (6.30pm)

Sunday

• Paisley Pirates v North Ayrshire Wild (5pm)