Fife Flyers deliver crucial win after Sheffield shocker

If Sunday was redemption day then they delivered, but there is still work to be done to whip this team into shape.

It has to tackle the fragility which sits at the heart of its mindset when games go off course.

It has to deliver 60-minute hockey games as standard.

And it has to produce performances which light up the rink and help to fill the seats every match night.

Sunday brought a Panthers team to Kirkcaldy which looked dog-tired after a long road trip from Guildford where a 2-1 lead was frittered away and became a 6-2 loss.

This was a game between sides in dire need of a victory to steady the ship.

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Fife were the better team with two goals in the opening three minutes setting them up nicely, although it took a solid third period performance to finally put the game beyond Nottingham’s reach.

Todd Dutiaume, head coach, said: ““We started slowly. Our confidence took a knock, but, as the game went on, we became significantly better as we realised we were competing. We saw it out maturely.”

He admitted it was an important win.

“This game was significant, and I’m happy that guys answered the bell, but we have lot more to offer, lot more to give. We all need to do better. Tonight needs to be the benchmark for what we expect from this group.”

Netminder Adam Morrison had a good 60-minutes, and was afforded much more protection from the skaters in front of him.

Mike Cazzola sealed a hard-working night with the fourth goal which killed Panthers’ hopes, while Tim Crowder continued to add to his points tally.

The work rate was also much better across the lines – for all Panthers had more of the puck in the second period, Fife never looked as though they were wobbling.

Half of their goals also came on the powerplay which was encouraging – Danick Gauthier getting the first at 1:54, turning home the rebound from a Carlo Finucci shot.

Tim Crowder made it 2-0 off another big rebound at 2:53, and Flyers stretched the gap to three goals at 38:27, as the specialist team worked hard to create the opening for Dylan Quaile to float a shot from the blue line through traffic into the net, via a deflection off a stick.

Panthers ended Morrison’s clean sheet with a 41st minute powerplay goal – Brett Perlini finding the net – but they lacked a cutting edge, and really didn’t rock Flyers backwards.

With just under four minutes to play, Cazzola sealed the win with a fine wrist shot.

Panthers called a time out with 1:35 to play and pulled their netminder in a rather futile attempt to cut the gap.

The additional skater made no difference to the final outcome.