Flyers burned by on-fire Flames who move into pole position

Elite League: Guildford Flames 5, Fife Flyers 3

Guildford Flames moved temporarily to the top of the ten-strong Elite League when they beat Fife Flyers for the second time in 24-hours.

Coach Paul Dixon’s men claimed maximum points with a 5-3 victory at The Spectrum following a 5-3 win on the road at Kirkcaldy on Saturday.

The sides were locked at 1-1 after the opening session on Sunday, Brett Ferguson scoring on the power play in ten minutes for the home side after Shawn Cameron was called for tripping.

Dumfries-born Bari McKenzie levelled less than seven minutes later with new signing Jan Klotz (pictured) and Cameron assisting.

And the visitors took the lead after 33 minutes when Kloz slotted after being set up by Zach Phillips and Janne Laakkonen.

Six minutes later Flames were level through Sam Marklund and 17 second after that they edged ahead 3-2 when Ryan Tait counted.

Fife responded through Cameron 18 seconds into the final session but went behind six minutes later when Morgan Clark-Pizzo counted and Johan Eriksson completed the scoring with an empty net goal unassisted after Fife gambled by withdrawing their netminder to have six skaters.

The Kingdom club were outshot 45-25 by Flames and have now played four games in the league and lost them all, scoring nine goals and shipping 18.

SATURDAY: Challenge Cup: Belfast Giants 5, Glasgow Clan 0. Elite League: Dundee Stars 4, Manchester Storm 5 (after sudden death overtime); Fife Flyers 3, Guildford Flames 5.

Glasgow Clan skidded to their ninth straight defeat despite the heroics of American-born netminder Zach Driscoll.

The 25-year-old, in his first season with the Braehead club, dealt with 46 shots as Belfast Giants completed a perfect record in the Challenge Cup qualifying section with a 5-0 win on home ice on Saturday.

Giants also edged Clan 3-2 at Braehead on Friday and top the standing with 12 points from their six games. Clan are bottom of the four-team section with zero points from five games so far,

Driscoll received praise from Giants coach Adam Keefe and Clan had to weather an early storm to blank the first session 0-0.

They lost three goals in the middle period and two in the final 20 minutes and stand-in player-coach Stephen Dixon said: “You always know coming to Belfast that you have to weather the storm in the first five or ten minutes.

“I thought we had excellent play in the first (period) and you have to have a good night to beat these guys here and it just wasn’t the case.”

Dundee Stars have also now also qualified for the knockout stage of the Challenge Cup with seven points from six matches, but they were on Elite League duty on Saturday.

The Tayside team led 4-1 after 44 minutes but caved in to Manchester Storm who won 5-4 in overtime thanks to a goal from red-hot Jesper Ohrvall, the leading points gathered in the league, 3min 59sec into the extra session.

Gutted Jeff Mason, Stars’ coach, said: “We had a third period lead in Belfast and gave it up, we lose that game. 

“I really liked our first period (against Manchester), I thought we played really well. We lost another body but I still liked how we were going, but there is no excuse for blowing the third period, especially at home.”

Fife Flyers have still to win at home this season after capitulating 5-3 to Guildford Flames on Saturday, their third straight defeat in the ten-strong Elite League.

The Kirkcaldy club were 4-0 down after 42 minutes, but a power play goal from Janne Kivilahti sparked a revival.

Zach Phillips netted a second and a power play strike from Shawn Cameron put the home side back in with a chance.

Flyers withdrew their netminder and the gamble failed as Sam Marklund slotted on the empty net with 37 seconds left.

Finnish forward Kivilahti said: “We can’t start that way, they were skating a lot, they were skating more than us, they were working more than us and our power play did not work in the first two periods.”

The 30-year-old added: “We lost one guy at the end of the second (period) and we went back to the locker-room and came back stronger.

“In the third we showed them that when we really play like we want to we are a better team but we still lost the game.”