Fife Flyers end 2022 with Hogmanay home clash with Belfast Giants

And the club is calling on fans to turn out for their final dose of hockey before the bells as the team targets a win to give them a kick-start into the second half of the season and on to the play-offs.

Flyers went down 3-1 to Giants in Belfast on Thursday night - they haven’t won across the Irish Sea in 12 visits dating back to September 2018 - but the club did put on a much better performance after suffering a grim 8-0 pre-Christmas whitewash at the SSE Arena.

Todd Dutiaume head coach, said: “We wanted to show a much better identity than we did in this building a week ago.

“Our strongest period offensively was the second and had we converted on a two on one we might have been looking at a different result.”He added: “We’re never happy with a loss, but if we compete like that on a nightly basis and add the bodies we want, then this team will be just fine.”

That could be as soon as Saturday night if the club’s signing target comes off and paperwork is done in time.

Jeff Hutchins, associate coach, revealed they had a player in their sights after the weekend action: “We have a guy who we think will help us and will bring us some offence. We are just waiting on clearance, and hope to have him in for the Hogmanay game.”

Flyers last game on home ice was a midweek 4-1 win over Dundee Stars watched 1400 fans - an encouraging rise on recent turnouts which had dropped below the 1000 threshold.

The win gave them a grip on eighth place in the league, but they have work to do to claw back on seventh-placed Manchester Storm who are five points ahead with four games in hand.

The Stars’ victory was just Fife’s third on home ice this season, but with a hectic December schedule giving way to a quieter January, the coaching staff are optimistic there is breathing pace for players to shake off injuries and re-set for a second half push for a play-off spot.

In Belfast last night, the only goal of the opening period went the way of the home side as Ben Lake found Josh Roach on the other side of the attacking zone, and the defenceman played it back to the GB international forward to one-time past Shane Owen with 11 minutes played.

Zack Phillips levelled the scores 47 seconds into period two with the final touch on a loose puck around Peyton Jones' net, but it was Giants netminder who came out the better when Janne Laakkonen raced through on a breakaway .

Mark Garside put the Giants back in front at 31:10 with his first goal of the season., tipping Roach's feed past Owen.

Garside was then the provider for David Gilbert's goal that put the hosts two ahead with 10:38 left to play in period three.

Adam Keefe, Giants’ head coach, said: “Fife were very good tonight and competed very hard. Shane Owen played very well. Everything they got was individual mistakes by us that caused the odd man rush.”