Fife Flyers’ coach Tom Coolen sizes up his squad after first win on home ice

He saw them post a first win on home ice with a 3-1 win over Dutch side, Tilburg Trappers, on Saturday - a game which marked the debuts of summer signings Casey Gilling and Aleksi Makela whose kit was delayed in reaching the rink after arriving in Fife, leaving them on the sidelines during training camp and the opening challenge games against Dundee Stars. Coolen also scratched defenceman Jonas Emmerdahl and British forward James Spence from his roster as he cast a critical eye over his lines for the 2023-24 campaign.

He said: “It was good to get our first win at home.. I thought we controlled the pace of the game and the puck more, and had a lot more chances. We had great possession time.”

Coolen has one more warm up game against CMS Corona Brasov tonight (Sunday) before preparing for the opening Challenge Cup double header with Glasgow Clan. “I’m continuing to evaluate the guys,” he said. “I’ll keep the evaluations to myself, but I saw a lot of things I liked and the game served me well. We keep going forward.”

The opening period against Tilburg proved goal-less despite good chances falling to both sides. Flyers broke the deadlock just 44 seconds into the second period when Anton Eriksson hit the net from long distance, and they made it 2-0 five minutes before the buzzer when Max Humitz fired past the netminder.

The visiting goalie continued to stand between Fife and more goals as he stonewalled Ben Hawerchuk, and then denied Lucas Chiodo on a penalty shot after the forward was tripped going for goal.

With three minutes on the clock, Tilburg pulled their netminder to go on a six on four penalty, and the move paid off when they broke Owen;s shut out.

Tilburg pulled their keeper a second time in a bid to try to tie the game only to see defenceman Reece Harsch hit the empty net with less than 30 seconds left to play.