Flyers performance branded 'sloppy' despite pre-season victory

They were made to work hard for the win by a fast-skating Danish side who may consider themselves unfortunate to have been on the losing end.

Flyers led the match 2-1 after two periods but had netminder Andy Iles to thank for the scoreline as the team were outshot 28-12 in the opening 40 minutes.

The third period was a more even affair as Flyers other stand-out player on the night, defenceman Ian Young, claimed his second goal to round off the victory.

While the win was welcome, head coach Todd Dutiaume felt that there was room for improvement.

"We were sloppy tonight at times," he said. "We weren't skating as well as we did last weekend and it's good we have this pre-season to work these kinks out.

"We have high expectations of this group and they can't take nights off because in our league you'll get punished for it.

"I'll try not to be too hard on these guys, but they were told after the game that we expect better.

"It's a work in progress and we'll continue to push them."

Herlev brought a team sprinkled with Danish internationals and they had Flyers scrambling around their own zone for the majority of the first period.

Despite this it was Flyers who took the lead on 7.13 when a nice move and pass from Peter LeBlanc created space for Carlo Finucci to fire the puck home from a narrow angle.

At the other end Iles was required to show impressive reflexes to keep Herlev at bay but he was finally beaten by Brian Birkhoff's rebound shot on 14.24.

The teams headed into the first break level at 1-1 and Flyers got some penalty kill practice in period two as they picked up a number of minors.

However, again, against the run of play, it was Fife who took the lead when, on their first powerplay of the night, Young fired a ferocious slapshot through traffic and past the goalie for 2-1 on 32.15.

Herlev had skated hard in the opening two periods and seemed to run out of steam a little in a more even third period.

The visitors had a goal chopped off when a puck was deflected past Iles by a high stick, and the win was secured on 57.41 when the impressive Young found himself up front, and weaved his way between two D-men before back-handing a shot into the far corner for a sublime solo goal.

Flyers face Herlev again tomorrow night at Fife Ice Arena, face-off 6.30 p.m.