Fife Flyers savour overtime victory with strike from Zack Phillips

It was only their fourth success in Kirkcaldy this campaign, but a big result with perfect timing to lift them off the bottom of the table after the briefest of stays there

Zack Phillips fired the winner deep into overtime to the delight of the fans and the team.

Jeff Hutchins, associate coach, who ran the bench in the absence of head coach Todd Dutiaume who is back in Canada attending to a family matter, said: “It proves if we play the right way, results will come. The players put the effort in this week and were rewarded tonight.”

The opening period ended goal-less, continuing the trend the sides started in the Midlands last Sunday where all three periods plus overtime failed to deliver a single goal.

There were few chances in the opening 20 minutes, but Fife got the go-ahead at 22:19 through the tireless Bari McKenzie - a hugely popular choice for MoM - with Kamerin Nault grabbing the assist on his home debut.

Blaze levelled through Kim Tallberg within two minutes, but Fife kept working hard and were rewarded with a fine goal from Reece Harsch as the defenceman saw his flick take the puck up and over the netminder before netting it with a second touch at 32:37.

Flyers did come under sustained spells of pressure, particularly in the third, but they broke out on several occasions to create some real chances.

It could have been 3-1 after 43 minutes as Chris Lawrence’s great move saw Nault flick the puck home. The referee signalled a high stick and it went to video review. After the longest of checks rinkside, he washed out the goal.

With eight minutes remaining, a second review, this time for Blaze a scrappy goal was studied amid claims the puck had come off a skate. A brief glance at the footage saw the goal stand, with Jack Billings getting the credit.

Flyers had a golden chance to kill the game in regulation time when Johnny Curran as called for tripping at 57:44, but they couldn’t find the net, and this game went to sudden death overtime.

Blaze had the early puck possession before the pendulum swung in Fife’s favour, and when Brady Norrish went for tripping at 63:09, it gave Flyers the extra skater, and Zack Phillips needed less than 20 seconds to bury the puck with a trademark one-timer of a shot off a Brayden Sherbinin pass.