Coach Coolen praises short-handed Flyers

Fife Flyers have proved in the last few days that Fife Flyers can live with the heavyweights in the Elite League.

That’s the view of Fife’s Canadian-born, head coach Tom Coolen (pictured), whose depleted squad were level at 2-2 at the Utilita Arena in Yorkshire with Sheffield Steelers in the Elite League in midweek at the end of the second period.

They were again level at 2-2 going into the third session in the SSE Arena in Belfast against Stena Line-backed Giants on Saturday in the Challenge Cup, Group B.

In fact, Fife led 1-0 after 3min 18sec before over 9,100 fans at The House of Steel in Sheffield and 2-1 after 21 minutes then were 2-0 in front after 12min 07sec in Northern Ireland on Saturday before being beaten, 5-2 at Sheffield and 5-3 in Belfast.

Fife were outshot 39-18 in Sheffield and 44-21 by Giants but netminder Janis Voris kept them in the game early on in Northern Ireland and it was not until the 34th minute that Belfast opened their account.

Flyers marksmen were Phelix Martineau and James Spence while J J Piccinich and Gabe Bast levelled the game at 2-2 and Mark Cooper, Scott Conway and Elijah Barriga completed the scoring for the home side. Martineau netted again for the visitors with less than two minutes remaining.

On Tayside, Dundee Stars won the first two sessions against Coventry Blaze in the Elite League only to go 3-2 down but Philippe Sanche levelled at 3-3 to send the game into an extra session.

And Zachary Tsekos was set up by Dryden Dow for the overtime game-winner despite Stars being short-handed as Brendan Harms was serving a two minute penalty in the sin bin for slashing.

Elsewhere, Glasgow Clan lost 5-3 at Guildford Flames after leading 2-1 at the end of the middle stanza but the home side won the final session 4-1 to claim the points to claim their third win in four nights.

On Sunday, Fife entertain Nottingham Panthers (17.15) in the Elite League and Clan visit Coventry (17.30) in the same competition while Belfast host Dundee (16.00) in the Challenge Cup.