Fife Flyers dig deep to savour rare win - and at the expense of rivals Glasgow Clan

After 23 loses in 24 starts, the team dug deeper than ever and played with huge heart from start to finish and finally got their rewards.

It wasn’t pretty and nowhere near perfect - if Flyers were a cat, then they used up several of their nine lives emerging unscathed from their own zone - but it finally had the fans cheering from the rafters. In a season this painful, you celebrate the moments which do go your way.

Asked what the difference was between the teams, Clan coach Corey Neilson summed it up in two words. Shane Owen.

“He was magical” and indeed he was, delivering some stellar saves and keeping the ship upright any time it started to rock. It was Owen of old with one of those performances which defies forwards to give it their best shot. They did – but he was better.

There were excellent performances from too from the relentless Lucas Chiodo and Phelix Martineau, while Evan Mackinnon caught the eye with a hard-working performance on his home debut.

Heavily outshot - 47 to 26 - Flyers stayed in contention across 60 minutes of back and forth hockey.

They grabbed the lead too, with a fine goal from Charles-Antoine Paiment at 16:19 netting off a pass from Phelix Martineau who tracked his movement perfectly before delivering the puck.

Three minutes later, Olivier LeBlanc was floored by a cheap elbow from Cade Neilson which earned him a five-minute penalty - he should have been tossed from the game there and then. The fact he wasn’t was one of several poor decisions from the referees, and it led directly to Flyers’ captain taking his own retribution late in the game. LeBlanc was ejected on 2+10 for instigating and five for fighting. Neilson’s second five-minute penalty for fighting automatically ended his game.

Clan drew level at 23:44 with a fine goal. They mugged Flyers at one end of the ice pad, Keaton Jameson scuttled away, and a one-time finish from Felix Pare beat Owen from the right. Tyson McLellan then added a powerplay counter at 30:12 with a tip off a Steven Seigh shot, and they had enough puck possession and chances to out this game to bed. That they didn’t summed up Fife’s refusal to fold.

Neilson fluffed a huge chance 44 seconds into the this period - it was a weak finish after getting in behind the home defence - and Flyers got their rewards with a game-tying goal seven minutes from time as Paiment flew down the ice, and laid it on a plate for Michael Cichy to shoot home.

At 58:45 Austin Farley was nailed with a bad hit from behind which the refs ignored. Instead they called Flyers for too many men, handing Clan a powerplay at the very death. Flyers endured once again to get a point from the regulation time draw and killed off the remainder of the penalty in overtime.

With the teams deadlocked it went to a shoot out. In the shootout, only McLellan scored for Clan. Cichy levelled in round one, before Kieran Craig beat Brine in round four. When Matt Berry missed with Clan's final attempt, a rare victory was assured.