Johnny Curran, Fife Flyers’ interim head coach, is preparing for a tough double-header against Scottish rivals Glasgow Clan after a double defeat.
The Elite League’s bottom club lost 5-2 at mid-table Coventry Blaze to complete a tough two game schedule which also included a 7-5 home defeat to Belfast Giants, the pace-setters in the division.
Curran, a Great Britain international, saw positives from the two games as Fife undoubtedly pushed both Giants and Blaze.
They were level at 2-2 after 28 minutes at Coventry and also stayed level with Giants until three minutes from time, roaring back from a 5-1 deficit after 41 minutes, to level.
Looking back at Sunday, Curran (pictured at Coventry by Scott Wiggins) said it was a good game in the Midlands and he said: “It was a really easy game to coach. Todd (Dutiaume) and I were pretty happy with the guys, no adjustments, they were playing great.
“It was 2-2 game going into the third and you could not ask for a better road game.
“You will not hear it often from me, but a guy on the trip here gets suspended, we get a player hit by the puck and we lose him for 20 minutes and we lose Brodie Kay in a 2-2 game. You are not going to beat a team like Coventry with 11 guys.
“You won’t hear a lot of excuses from me this year, but you can’t get it down short-staffed.”
Curran will have Keiran Craig and Janis Voris back after one-game suspensions – Voris was also fined an undisclosed amount – following Saturday’s clash with Belfast, the goaltender having been banned for “instigating” and the forward for “spearing”.
Ice hockey discipline officials acknowledged that Craig’s spearing was not forceful but there was still a risk of injury due to the contact in the helmet-head area and they said Voris skated over the centre red line with the purpose of starting an altercation with Belfast netminder, Jackson Whistle.
Canadian-born Curran will also hope to get injured men back for their league trip to Braehead on Wednesday (19.30) to square-up to a Glasgow Clan side who suffered back-to-back home disappointments at the weekend, a 5-2 reverse to high-flying Sheffield Steelers and a 3-2 defeat after overtime to fellow-strugglers, Manchester Storm.
The West of Scotland combine are in need of points as they currently occupy the eighth and final play-off spot and Fife are back at Breahead on Saturday in another league game.
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