Fife hit by double whammy

Fife Flyers dismal weekend ended with a second defeat in 24-hours as Nottingham Panthers emerged with the points in a 4-2 win at the Fife Ice Arena.

That’s despite Fife, who were beaten 3-0 at home by Belfast Giants on Saturday, starting well and their leading points gatherer, Michael McNicholas, netting the opener after only eight minutes.

Panthers responded with two quick goals to move ahead and they never looked back.

Their first came on the power play a minute later from Mathieu Tousignant tipping the puck home with McNicholas in the sin bin for delaying the game and it was followed by another power play counter, this time from Matthew Myers, with James Isaacs under penalty for roughing.

Flyers struggled to create offense and Simon Suoranta scored No 3 with a wrist shot in the 22nd minute and Myers’ claimed his second and Panthers’ fourth in the 45th minute which ended the contest.

Fife netted a consolation with less than four minutes left when McNicholas scored his second on the power play with Panthers’ Taylor Doherty called for interference.

In contrast, Panthers left Scotland after their three game weekend with four points having beaten Glasgow Clan 4-1 at Braehead on Friday. The only blip was the 4-1 defeat at Dundee Stars on Saturday.

Glasgow Clan suffered their third defeat in four home games at Braehead when they were thrashed 6-0 by Belfast Giants.

The home side only managed 14 shots on the opposition goal in the 60 minutes with 51 coming the other way.

Clan lost the first period 2-0, gave up a single in the middle session but then allowed three into their net in the final 20 minutes.

This result will be a major blow to coach Malcolm Cameron who challenged his men to produce after they lost 4-1at home to Nottingham Panthers on Friday and whose team only lost 3-2 in Belfast in the first game of their season.

It took Lewis Hook only eight minutes to net the opener for the visitor and Slater Doggett added No 2 nine minutes later.

Jordan Bucher increased the agony for home fans with a third after 35 minutes and three goals arrived in five nightmare minutes in the third, two after Clan hit penalty trouble.

David Goodwin netted the fourth after 46 minutes with Griffin Reinhart added No 5 less than a minute after that and Scott Conway finished the rout with a sixth after 51 minutes.

Meanwhile, Dundee Stars skidded to a 3-1 defeat at Elite League pace-setters Sheffield Steelers after being outshot 31-22.Steelers scored in each of the three periods to take the points against struggling Stars who have only won four of their 15 starts.

Evan Mosey opened the scoring after 16 minutes followed by Martin Latal after 24 minutes. Charlie Combs gave Dundee hope with a strike after 30 minutes but Tanner Eberle netted 13 minutes later for a 3-1 final score.