Vipers leave it late...again!

And after a final 20 which saw two players ejected from the ice and a stunning breakaway fifth Vipers goal when the home team were two men down, the rest of the Findus British National League must now look at Tyneside as a place to dread visiting.

Edinburgh Capitals came into the match on the back of a 5-2 away win at Cardiff on Saturday night and looked confident in the first period which, although remained goalless, was end to end stuff, with lots of chances. The attacking play in the early going only failed to get goals thanks to some good goaltending from Pasi Raitanen and his opposite number in the Capitals net, Ladisslav Kudrna.

On three occasions, the Vipers were forced to play shorthanded as Simon Leach (elbowing), Martin Lapointe (slashing) and Ian Defty (holding) took penalties. But the Newcastle tactics came off as they put on six minutes of excellent defensive play, clearing their lines well and even creating chances themselves.

The period started to heat up as Capital Martin Cingel brought Michael Bowman down on the edge of the Vipers' defensive third and took two minutes' enforced break for slashing. Despite a lot of pressure on the power play, Vipers failed to take advantage of the extra man, with the best chance falling to Rob Trumbley, whose long range effort was clipped over the bar by Kudrna.

During the Capitals' final power play of the period, skipper Stephen Lynch forced a good save from Raitanen, but the Vipers almost took the lead as Lapointe broke clear but hit his shot straight at Kudrna.

The second period was much more exciting, with the Vipers playing the better hockey and unlucky to go into the third period level.

However, it was the visitors who almost struck first through Geordie Stuart Lonsdale, who found himself clear through only for Raitanen to make the save and again excel only seconds later when Peter Konder let fly.

Down the other end, Jeff Trembecky could have forced a save from Kudrna but instead of letting fly first time, he took a moment to control the puck.

Defenceman Andre Malo did force a save shortly after, however, when he was picked out by a Mikko Koivunoro pass after the Finn rounded the net and made the pass. Vipers continued on the offensive and Stuart Potts shot into the side netting after breaking down the left.

It was a prolonged spell of power play hockey for Newcastle which eventually brought the opening goal, after Jan Krajicek earned himself two minutes in the sin bin for tripping and another two for unsportsmanlike conduct as a result of his wild gesticulations at the original decision.

Vipers immediately went on the offensive, with Trembecky the main threat. The winger saw one shot whiz past the post and seconds later must have thought he was certain to score when the Vipers were three on one against the net minder only for Kudrna to make the save from point blank range.

But the Vipers only needed 2.53 of the four minutes Krajicek had handed them to get the goal. Leach set up Trumbley for a shot which was saved, but as the attack kept on coming, Stephen Wallace set up big defenceman Mike Lankshear for a shot down the middle of the ice and into the roof of the net for his sixth goal of the season.

It could well have been two shortly after when Koivunoro played a pass across ice towards Malo, who was skating into space, but Krajicek made a superb diving stop with his outstretched stick to foil the Newcastle attack.

However, the next goal was to come to the visiting side. Craig Wilson's shot skimmed past the outside of the post and rebounded off the boards for Stephen Kaye to pick it up and steer it past Raitanen for the equaliser on 34.33.

Despite the Vipers hitting back straight away with an attacking onslaught, the lead was not to be regained in the second period, as Lankshear's effort was saved and Trembecky's shot went wide, as the Newcastle offence forced the visitors into some desperate defence.

But if the second period was in improvement on the first in terms of excitement, the third was on another level still - even if it did take a few minutes to get going.

In fact, other than a few half chances for either side, there was little of note until Kaye and Trembecky took minors for unsportsmanlike conduct on 47.44, opening up some ice for the teams to play at four on four.

Newcastle made the most of that space, with Koivunoro and Leach - playing despite difficult family circumstances - coming close before Lapointe finally broke his duck and scored in a Vipers shirt.

Having set up so many Vipers goals already this season, he made no mistake as he latched onto a Lankshear cross-ice pass to round Capitals' man of the match Kurdna and shoot home with the back of his stick on 49.20.

And only 24 seconds later, as announcer Bill Flower was still giving the details of Lapointe's goal, Koivunoro made it 3-1 with his first of the night as Wallace set him clean through and the big winger made no mistake from close range.

In the meantime, the atmosphere on the ice continued to be tetchy at best and Trumbley looked set to give the fans what they wanted, his first battle in a Vipers shirt, but the referees stepped in when he and Martin Cingel looked set to square off on 51.40. But the fans wouldn't have too long to wait to see their hero in action.

Capitals almost pulled one back through Kaye, but Raitanen showed why Vipers coach Clyde Tuyl considers him to have been an even bigger revelation than he expected when he coolly stopped the forward's shot.

It was an elbowing incident which finally saw Trumbley square off, and he is unlikely to find a more towering opponent than 6ft 4ins Krajicek in a hurry. But it was nearly Ian Defty who went toe-to-toe with the big man before they were separated and Trumbley finally broke through the crowd and the gloves were dropped.

Despite Krajicek's height and reach advantage, Trumbley was the man on the offensive and was faring well until Krajicek resorted to hair pulling to bring the Vipers 36 to the ice and the pair were both ejected from the game.

For the record, Trumbley was given two minutes for elbowing and a game misconduct for being the third man in, while Defty got two minutes for roughing and Krajicek received two minutes for elbowing and five plus ten for holding.

The scoring action was far from over, as Defty came out of the bin - and the Vipers found themselves on the power play - to set Koivunoro up for his second and the Vipers' fourth on 54.41.

Edinburgh refused to give up, even at 4-1 down with five minutes to go, and both side continued to create chances, Raitanen forced into an excellent save to stop Kaye pulling one back with a shot from the right.

But it looked like the Vipers' fans night could be brought down a notch or two when, 31 seconds apart, Wallace and Trembecky found themselves keeping each other company at referee Graham Horner's pleasure for slashing and hooking, respectively, leaving their team mates to battle against five on three odds.

But they had been doing so for only 11 seconds when Joel Irwin made his mark on what had otherwise been a fairly low key performance by his standards, picking up a pass from Koivunoro to break clear and fire past Kudrna to round off the scoring with a superb breakaway effort 63 seconds from time.

Vipers: Koivunoro 2+1; Lankshear, Lapointe, Irwin 1+1; Wallace 0+2.

Read more about Newcastle Vipers here.