Fife Flyers coach Todd Dutiaume guided his men into the knockout stages of the Challenge Cup and declared: “We have shown what we are capable of.”
His assessment followed a 5-0 thrashing of arch rivals Dundee Stars on Sunday in a must-win game at The Fife Ice Arena.
Flyers went into the game knowing that only a win would do to qualify for the quarter-finals of the first major trophy of the season and his men produced under real pressure after losing 4-1 at Belfast Giants in the same competition on Saturday.
And the key, said the experienced coach, was getting pucks in behind Dundee’s defencemen.
Dutiaume admitted: “At times this season we have shown what we are clearly capable of but it takes a consistent effort and you have to have that hunger to outwork teams.
“Personally, I thought, with the exception probably of our first two or three shifts, our first period was our weakest period because we looked content to play end-to-end.
“As soon as we were willing to get pucks in behind their D-man and grind it out and wear them down in their end we certainly nullified a lot of their advantages which is their speed through the neutral zone.
“I am pretty pleased. Over the last three weeks we are playing 500 hockey which is a step in the right direction.”
Matt Carter poked home from the top of the crease to prod Fife ahead in the third minute with an assist from Craig Peacock and Jacob Benson. The scoreline stayed that way until the first break despite Fife being outshot 18-11.
Eight minutes into the middle session it was 2-0 for the fired-up home side after a defensive mistake, James Anderson netting after being set-up by Scott Jamieson.
Omar Pacha, Stars’ playcaller, felt the game completely changed after Anderson’s goal.
Dundee then hit penalty problems and Fife made them pay when Erik Naslund was fed by Imants Lescovs for No 3 with 15 seconds remaining of the period in which Fife outshot their opponents 12-6.
Fife stayed on the front foot in the third, outshooting Stars 11-7 and Michael McNicolas increased their advantage after three minutes with Greg Chase and Carson Stadnyk assisting and Lesvocs completed the shutout 56 seconds from time after Benson fed him the puck.
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