Fife Flyers' forward says team can win the league

The 32-year-old is enjoying his first season in Kirkcaldy after switching form Braehead Clan and reckons the team can carry on its good start to the season right until the end.

“I don’t see why we can’t win the league,” he said. “I think if we can stay healthy and continue to play the way that we are, I don’t see why not.

“Our start to the season has been really good. If you look at the season we’ve lost one game out of 10 in regulation time.

“The start we’ve had has included a lot of tough away games and I don’t think a lot of people outside of this locker room would have given us a chance [of winning].

“But with the way that we have played, people’s expectations have gone up. We know amongst ourselves that we are a good team and on any given night we can beat anybody, and we’ve proven that so far.

“I think there have been games where we haven’t been at our best but we’ve still won, which shows the sign of a good team.”

The forward says Sunday’s defeat and lacklustre performance at Cardiff was a one-off and the team are determined to make amends.

“We just need to come back from it. It was a tough game. I mean, we were going to lose eventually, we weren’t going to go the whole season undefeated,” he said.

“It was a long day, especially after a tough game on the Saturday. We don’t want to use excuses, we’re used to the travel, but I think Cardiff had an advantage.

“It was an early face-off, we had to travel, they had been at home the night before, but it is what it is. We lost, we have to accept that.

“Cardiff are a good team but if you look at the game overall, it was just that four minutes at the end of the second period that killed the game. So now we have to realise what we did wrong, and bounce back from it.

“If you’re a good team you challenge yourself not to lose two in a row.

“Good teams who are challenging for titles don’t go on a streak of losing games so we need to push ourselves for this weekend and try and pick up four points, especially on Saturday so we don’t lose two in a row.

McKenzie has thoroughly enjoyed the switch from Glasgow to Fife, saying: “It’s been really good.

“They’re a great bunch of guys, good coaching staff, great fans and good ownership.

“Overall I think it’s a really good organisation and I’m really glad I made the switch.

“I think when you’re a winning team it’s easier as well and so far everything has been smooth sailing and everything is going well.”

Describing himself as a “high energy” player, McKenzie says he’s been pleased with his own form, but is striving to hit the net more often.

He said: “I think for the most part I’ve been pretty good though sometimes it can be tough when you look at the scoring side of things.

“You see that the guys are scoring a lot of goals and I’m not scoring as many as I’d like to.

“But at the end of the day if I do the small things right to contribute in my own way, then I don’t mind doing that.”