Coventry Blaze can complete a memorable treble on Sunday night if they beat the Newcastle Vipers in Saturday's play-off semi-final.
League champions to face the Giant killers
Coventry Blaze can complete a memorable treble on Sunday night providing they beat the Newcastle Vipers in Saturday's play-off semi-final.
Blaze claimed their third Elite League title in four years with victory over the Belfast Giants at the start of March and added the British Knockout Cup against the Basingstoke Bison later in the same month.
Their squad is littered with stars like leading Elite League point scorers Adam Calder (56 goals and 66 assists) and Dan Carlson (29 goals and 78 assists) and in Canadian netminder Trevor Koenig, who has a 93 per cent save ratio for the season, they have one of the best goaltenders in league history.
Sylvain Cloutier and Curtis Huppe have chipped in with 67 goals and 82 assists between them over the season as well, but Barrie Moore has proved Blaze's most influential player in the play-offs so far.
Underdogs
The Canadian forward got the ball rolling with a goal in the 3-2 play-off quarter-final win on Sunday and had two assists over the two games against the Edinburgh Capitals.
Huppe, former Newcastle captain Jonathan Weaver and Danny Stewart got the other goals and they will be overwhelming favourites to repeat their success of the 2004/05 season at the National Ice Centre over the weekend.
But the Vipers belied their league position to defeat the Giants courtesy of a penalty shoot-out in an epic quarter-final on Sunday.
Great Britain international David Longstaff (19 goals and 46 assists) and Ben Storey (16 goals and 29 assists) held their nerve to score the two vital penalty goals and alongside Colin Shields (36 goals and 35 assists) and Derek Campbell (22 goals and 43 assists) they have been the biggest contributors for Newcastle this season.
First choice netminder Ryan MacDonald has a 91.5 per cent save ratio for the season although the fact he has faced the most shots in the league (2,226) says something about the defence in front of him.
Swansong
The Vipers have a good record against the league leaders this season though, winning on three out of the six occasions they have met.
Goals from Storey and Mark Gouett and a brace from Shields took the Vipers to victory the last time the teams met and veteran Shaun Johnson believes his team can succeed again.
The former Durham and Coventry forward will sign off with the Vipers at the weekend and wants to go out on a high.
"I've had a great few years at Newcastle, and to top it off with a play-off experience is great. But it will be even better to be win on Sunday," he told the club's website.
"There are a lot of parallels between this team and the 2006 play-off winning team. All the players are incredibly determined to win and we seem to have stepped up a gear when it's really mattered.
"I suppose we'll go in as underdogs, but that suits us just fine."
Either the Sheffield Steelers or Cardiff Devils await in Sunday's final with a place in Elite League history at stake.