Johnny Curran, Fife Flyers’ interim head coach, said he takes positives from the club’s 5-1 reverse at Glasgow Clan on Hogmanay.
One of them was the display of back-up netminder, Janis Voris, who dealt with 51 shots and Fife only fired 14 in return.
Flyers last celebrated a win on December 1 and, right now, Great Britain international Curran (pictured by Al Goold courtesy of the Elite League), is calling the shots on the bench backed by former head coach, Todd Dutiaume, the club’s general manager.
Can the duo make it a happier New Year than the second half of 2024? The success-starved fans hope so, but it is a huge ask for the rookie coach. Time will tell.
Decisions have to be made and, thankfully, the team have a short break before hosting Coventry Blaze, currently fourth, on January 4 (19.15) and visit sixth-placed Guildford Flames nearly 24-hours later, another marathon journey and tough-double header.
The 29-year-old coach, currently on the sidelines with a long-term ligament injury, gave Voris the nod at Braehead, after Monday’s 8-3 capitulation at Kirkcaldy to the same team.
The netminder was picking the puck out of the back of the net after 7min 36sec. Cole Ully was set up by Tyson McLellan and Liam Finlay
Flyers dug in and the teams entered their respective dressing-rooms with the scoreline unaltered. However, Clan struck again 4min 42sec into the middle session when Felix Pare was set up by Matt Stief and Matt Berry. There was no further scoring by the second break but the shot count told its own story, 26 on Voris and only seven on his counterpart, Lucas Brine.
Into the third and Berry was set up by Chris Martenet and Ully for No 3 on 45min 58sec but four minutes later there was joy for the Fifers as Massimo Carozza was fed by Lucas Chiodo and the puck dispatched.
Clan completed their victory with two late goals, on 58min 02sec from McLellan with Martenet and Finlay involved and Pare counted with a fifth with Chris McKay assisting along with Stief, with two seconds remaining. By that time, Clan had fired 51 shots to 14 in reply.
The 3-1 final session pleased home fans in the busy arena packed with 3,607 fans and the Purple Army enjoyed their afternoon out and also the reward of back-to-back wins over ailing Fife.
That helped Clan recover from a 4-1 defeat at Giants but the Glasgow combine previously accounted for Belfast 5-1 at Braehead on Boxing Day taking their points from four Festive matches to a satisfactory six out of eight. Room for optimism, perhaps.
Glasgow are seventh at the turn of the year with 24 points from 25 fixtures. Bottom club Fife have six points from 24 fixtures. The only way is up but it is a steep climb.
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