Fife Flyers confirm quarter-final play off dates with champs Sheffield Steelers

The teams were paired after Flyers’ 4-1 loss to Dundee Stars saw them finish in eighth in the Elite League. They now go head to head with the champions for a place in the finals weekend at Nottingham.

The first leg takes place at Ice Sheffield on Friday, April 12 with NO Flyers fans present. Steelers moved the game to the much smaller rink because of a concert by Take That in their arena, and all tickets have already gone to their own fans, with many unable to be rinkside because of the much smaller capacity.

The return game is at Fife Ice Arena on Sunday with a 5:15pm face-off, giving Tom Coolen’s team a rest day between the ties. Season ticket holders can secure their seats until 10:00pm on Tuesday ahead of them going on general sale from Wednesday morning.

Flyers could have finished as high as sixth, but with qualification confirmed on Saturday, they came up short against a Stars side that had to win or face the curtain coming down on their season.

Coolen admitted Dundee were deserved winners - “simple as that,”

He said: They were desperate team coming in here. We had qualified the night before. Maybe our need was as not desperate as the other teams. We didn't dig that as deeply as Dundee did. I am disappointed we didn't get win in front of our best crowd in years. Didn't get them enough to cheer. I pride myself in having a team that has worked really hard from day one. We leave it all on the ice - we didn't do that tonight to the level we needed.”

Marc Lefbevre, Stars’ head coach, described it as “a very emotional game” adding: “To see us & Fife Flyers battle into the play offs is great for this side of Scotland.”