The pre-season is now complete and the official start of competitive action in the Elite League has fans buzzing.
So much so, that the 3,000-capacity Braehead Arena is almost sold out for Glasgow Clan’s home joust with new-look Fife Flyers in the Challenge Cup on Saturday (face-off 7pm).
The East v West rivalry has grown in recent seasons and Clan bosses confirm that fewer than 550 tickets are left for the first home game of the season.
As this is a Challenge Cup game, Clan season tickets are not valid.
Flyers go into the game in a positive mood, despite back-to-back defeats from Dundee Stars last weekend, one in overtime and the second after penalty shots.
Over 2,600 fans crowded into The Fife Ice Arena for Sunday’s second installment, and coach Jamie Russell felt his men took a step forward from Saturday’s first game in The Dundee Ice Arena.
He added: “Pre-season was a learning process and, as a coach, you want to see the guys taking strides. Over the six periods of hockey (against Dundee) we got better and better each period.”
The overall strategy of the training camp and the double-header against Dundee was to establish a culture and identity of who Fife Flyers are.
Russell added: “We threw so much at these guys and it was about individual players finding chemistry with their line-mates, communication between goalies and defencemen, and each day we want to get better.”
FLASHBACK: Flyers v Clan last season courtesy of Fife Flyers and the Elite League
