Shane Owen has been outstanding for Fife Flyers again this season and received the Man of the Match award as the Kirkcaldy club were edged in a shootout at Coventry Blaze last Sunday in the Viaplay Elite League.
Even rival coach Danny Stewart was full of praise for the Canadian-hot stop and Owen (pictured against Coventry courtesy of the Viaplay Elite League and taken by Scott Wiggins) is expected to be in the firing line on Saturday when Coventry visit The Fife Ice Arena.
Stewart, a one-time Fife favourite, also praised his netyminder, Paavo Hosla, who pulled off a string of quality stops to win the Blaze Man of the Match.
American forward Jack Billings settled the issue after the sides had drawn a black in regulation time and after sudden death overtime and both netminders are expected to be centre stage again on Saturday.
Todd Dutiaume, Fife’s head coach, took real positives from the defeat, saying that Fife traded with a quality side which has been in and around the top of the ten-strong table this term. He wants the same application when Blaze arrive at Rosslyn Street.
Blaze are fifth in the table with 43 points from 33 games while Fife now anchor the division with 20 points from 34 outings. Dutiaume remains up-beat and said that the club had only recently been back to full-strength after a tough run of injuries to key men.
Dutiaume said Owen had a “fantastic” game and added: “We have been really short-bodied up until recently and he (Shane) has bailed us out for the limited success we have had so it is a shame we could not get one over the line for him. One again he had a fabulous weekend and we know he is going to compete for us every night.”
The playcaller said: “We have to sharpen up on a few things and we have to start scoring some more goals to give (Shane) Owen some help, but we can take positives out of that game.”
Danny Stewart said: “Both goaltenders played really well. In the first period we controlled the play and we had a lot of good looks. Credit to their guy (Shane Owen) he cam up big but Fife had a little push back in the second and Paavo (Holsa) had to come up big three of four times and had to make some key saves.
“We got back to our game in the third and again created a lot but could not find a way through. Overtime it could go either way and luckily Paavo made some good saves.” It could be that the same two individuals find their names mentioned in the summary after Saturday’s game.
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