Ice hockey – Stars and Clan win but Fife burned by Flames

Elite League: Dundee Stars 5, Manchester Storm 3; Guildford Flames 4, Fife Flyers 2; Sheffield Steelers 3, Glasgow Clan 4

Fife Flyers’ three-game winning run, which took them to the top of the Elite League, skidded to a halt at Guildford Flames.

The English combine, beaten in their last two games, were finally subdued by an empty net goal inside the final two minutes.

Earlier, Jamie Crooks fired the home side ahead after eight minutes and Sam Jones levelled from a Danick Gauthier pass seven minutes later.

Calle Ackered put the home side ahead for a second time after only 54 seconds of the middle session on the power play.

Back came Fife with Chase Schaber netting in the 29th minute on the power play with assists from Tim Crowder and Scott Aarssen.

But Kruise Reddick claimed Flames’ third eight minutes later and John Dunbar made it 4-2 by scoring when Fife gambled by removing their netminder to have six skaters.

Dundee Stars blew Manchester Storm away to gain revenge following a 3-1 defeat in the North-West earlier in the campaign.

The 5-3 Elite League victory, following a 4-3 Challenge Cup success in Belfast on Saturday, is a massive boost to the club after a form slump.

Stars led 2-0 after the first session with Kevin Dufour netting in 62 seconds and Egils Kalns making in 2-0 on the power play after 11 minutes.

Scott Simmonds pulled one back on the power play for Storm with 59 seconds left of the middle session.

But Stars claimed their third four minutes into the final period with Dufour on the mark again.

And Matt Marquardt increased their advantage with a strike after 45 minutes.

Layne Ulmer scored Storm’s second four minutes later and Dallas Ehrhardt increased the pressure on the home side with a power play strike after 56 minutes.

But Anthony Beauregard made sure with an empty net strike with 12 seconds remaining.

Glasgow Clan claimed their second win in 24-hours when they edged Sheffield Steelers 4-3 in Yorkshire.

Clan, who won 6-2 at Cardiff Devils on Saturday, were on fire in the first period, firing four goals, three of them in just over four minutes.

Chad Rau opened the scoring after nine minutes with Rasmus Bjerrum making it 2-0 two minutes later.

The same player added a third two minutes after that and Matt Stanisz scored on a power play 12 seconds from the first break.

It took Steelers until the 32nd minute to open their account through Anthony Deluca and he scored a second 16 minutes later. Robert Dowd made it 4-3 with less than two minutes left.