Edinburgh Capitals’ forward Matt Tipoff admits the defeats against Cardiff Devils and Belfast Giants last weekend were hugely disappointing.

The results sent the Capitals to the bottom of the Elite League table and Tipoff believes the team must improve defensively if they’re to challenge for a play-off spot.

“Hockey’s a sixty minute game, it’s not a ten minute game,” he told the Student Newspaper.

“If we’re only going to play for ten minutes, we’re going to lose every game. We’ve definitely got to start better, we have to play a way more sound defensive game and we’re going to work on that in practice this week.

“If you’re going to give up six goals a night, then you’re not going to win any games in this league.

“We can definitely work a bit harder in our own end and it really just comes down to winning one-on-one puck battles.

“When guys aren’t winning one-on-one battles out there, and if you have defensive breakdowns everywhere, then you’re going to have those tap in goals like Belfast did.

“We’re playing a ton of games this month and we’ve really got to get off to a good start.

“We don’t want to get into a hole this next weekend, so if we can get a couple of wins and get rolling then you never know what can happen.

“We’re just going to focus a lot this week defensively in practice and hopefully get a big win next game.”