FOR ice hockey legend Tony Hand, it was a special night when Edinburgh Capitals retired his jersey in a game with Dundee Stars, another of his former teams.

For the then Stars coach, Marc LeFebvre, the game five years ago this weekend is one he did not want to dwell on, even though his team finally ended up with the points.

LeFebvre was happy to honour Hand, but even more importantly, he wanted the two points from what was a tough venue to play in that season. However, he never dreamed his team would come away with an 11-9 victory.

“I threw the DVD away after the game,” said Lefebvre, now head coach of Danish side Odense Bulldogs. “I never wanted to see it again in terms of breaking it down. We just hit the reset button after that.

“As a coach, a game like that is a nightmare because you never want to be losing nine goals, although we came out the right side of it. It was a memorable one and I’m sure the fans got plenty of entertainment from it.

“But I think the guys took the throwback theme too literally that night. I remember some of the old British League scores being 12-10 or 14-12, but it was a wonderful night for us because we ended up with the two points.”

It was the highest scoring game in Elite League history at the time - although it was beaten a few months later as the Capitals were thrashed 13-9 by Manchester Storm - but the fact Stars were trailing for large parts of the contest made it all the sweeter for them.

Although level at 2-2 after the first period, they had to come back from two down to get there. By the end of the middle session, the Caps were 7-5 in front and it left LeFebvre considering his next move as he tried to find a way to turn the deficit around.

“I remember sitting in the hallway at Murrayfield pondering a goalie change, but talked myself out of it as we still had a chance to win,” he said. “I told the guys we had to find a way, so immediately, Edinburgh scored to make it 8-5 and from there, somehow we managed to turn it around and scored the 10th goal, the game winner, with a minute to go.

“I had a lot of faith in my team that year when it came to scoring goals. We had a lot of firepower and knew if we could get a couple in that third period, then we could win it. It’s why coaches preach about playing for 60 minutes no matter what and we did.”

Five years on, it is definitely a game that stands out for LeFebvre.

“It was a wild game and the fact we’re talking about it five years on shows just how crazy it was,” he said. "My team that year were the highest scorers, but we conceded a lot too so that game, looking back, is a reflection of that whole season for us.

“It’s definitely among one of the most memorable games I’ve been involved with, either as a player or a coach and regular season games don’t usually stand out, but this was definitely one of them for sure.”