Fife Flyers come up short as opening weekend yields two defeats

The Kirkcaldy club went down 3-2on the road to Coventry Blaze on Sunday, 24 hours after a 5-1 loss on home ice to Manchester Storm,.

Over the course of the weekend, they coughed five powerplay goals, and the momentum the fans anticipated as players returned to the line-up didn’t materialise.

Flyers now face a real test this weekend with back to back games against an in-form Guildford Flames.

Jeff Hutchins, associate coach, admitted Manchester wanted the win more - and Flyers “did not respond to their intensity.”In his post-game analysis he added: “We lacked commitment in some small areas of our game and will address that.”

Veteran forward Chris Lawrence, Flyers man of the match, said: “A learning experience and wake up call for us.”

In Coventry last night, it was a tale of two red hot netminders, but Fife came off second best by one goal.

Todd Dutiaume, head coach, admitted: “We were always chasing the game.”

Flyers iced minus Dillon Lawrence, Fynn Page and Mikael Johansson - and lost the opening period 1-0 to a Blaze side which remains unbeaten this season.

Brady Norrish fired them ahead in the last two minutes of the opening period.

Marley Quince then finished from Nathanael Halbert's pass to put the Blaze two up on the powerplay at 36:54 - but Fife hit straight back through Janne Kivilahti from close range 30 seconds later.

The next goal was key, and it fell to the hosts as Colton Yellow horn neatly one-timed Jack Billing's well-placed pass home with 9:40 to play.

Flyers struck through Janne Kivilahti with seven seconds left, but they had no time to try to tie the game and force overtime.

Dutiaume said: “It took us a while to get into the game but, once we did, for a brief period in second we had some strong play in their zone.

“Up until the power break we will really pushing them, but then we took a penalty and that killed any momentum.”