Dundee Stars host Manchester Storm on Saturday (19.00) in a key game at the bottom end of the Premier Sports Elite League table with Storm occupying ninth position on 20 points from 27 games and seventh-placed Stars a point better off from 24 outings.
Storm have beaten Stars twice in the North-West (6-2 and 4-3) but Stars have won 3-2 and 4-1 on Tayside.
Glasgow Clan entertain Guildford Flames (19.00) and the Braehead club, for whom Matt Haywood is a key man (pictured), are in sixth spot in the ten-strong table thanks to their midweek points in an overtime defeat at Sheffield.
Clan have 23 points from the same number of games, one point behind fifth-placed Flames who have played five more fixtures and are currently on an alarming slide although they earned a point in a 4-3 shootout defeat at Coventry Blaze on Friday.
The sequence includes a narrow 4-3 defeat at Braehead in mid-December, but they recently won 4-1 at Kirkcaldy against Flyers.
It’s bottom against one of the top two when flagging Fife Flyers visit Sheffield Steelers in the Elite League.
Thankfully for Fife coach Todd Dutiaume, it is the last time that Fife will have to travel to The House of Steel this term in the regular season.
Sheffield have an unblemished four-game record against Fife this season in all competitions and the league pace-setters have won the last seven meetings between the teams in Yorkshire.
Razor-sharp Marc-Olivier Vallerand is a real danger man. He is the leading goal scorer and points gatherer in the Elite League going into this weekend’s fixtures.
Vallerand has appeared in 24 games, scoring 19 goals and assisting in 19 other strikes. Fife’s main man, Michael McNicholas, is eighth with 13 goals and 13 assists in 25 appearances.
ELITE LEAGUE: Saturday: Dundee Stars v Manchester Storm (19.00); Glasgow Clan v Guildford Flames (19.00); Sheffield Steelers v Fife Flyers (19.00).
Experienced news, business, arts, sport and travel journalist. Food critic and managing editor of a well-established food and travel website. Also a magazine editor of publications with circulations of up to 200,000 and managing director of a long-established PR/marketing company with a string of blue-chip clients in its CV. Former communications lecturer at a Scottish university and social media specialist for a string of successful and busy SMEs.
