Fife Flyers: ‘grab this challenge’ Tom Coolen tells his team ahead of Steelers play-off tie

The teams meet in the quarter-finals of the play-offs after the dust finally settled on an enthralling finale to the league season which saw five teams chasing the last remaining qualifying berths on the last night of action.

Flyers and Stars made it after splitting their double header weekend, but the results elsewhere meant that Tom Coolen’s side slipped from sixth on Saturday to eighth on Sunday - and that meant a match-up with Steelers. Now, their ambitions of making the play-off finals weekend in Nottingham face the toughest of tests.

The first leg is at Ice Sheffield on Friday, and it will be a surreal night as no tickets have been offered to Fife fans because of the reduced 1500 capacity. “We’ll be the only Fife supporters in the building” said Coolen as he looked ahead to locking horns with Aaron Fox’s all conquering side.

The teams meet in the second leg at Fife Ice Arena on Sunday - giving both a full day of rest in between.

“We could have played Saturday, but I wanted to do it in proper hockey fashion and that is play Friday, rest and then go again,” he said. “We will travel back on Friday and have a day to rover and that is the way it should be for all teams involved.”

Everything is on the line this weekend as the club plays its first play-off tie since 2018 - underlining the major progress made on and off the ice this season.

Coolen has a full squad at his disposal with forward Johan Erikkson back in training on Wednesday afternoon after missing Sunday’s defeat - and he wants them to bounce back from that loss to give themselves a real chance of eliminating the champs.

“We have to grab this challenge,” he said. “Our initial goal this season was to make the play-offs and we have achieved that - and we should be proud. Now we want to take it another step forward.”

Steelers held the upper hand in their league games, winning five of the six, but two were one goal hockey games, and two others had a two-goal-margin, they are, without doubt, the top rated side of the 2023-24 campaign.

“You can’t play wide open hockey against Sheffield otherwise they will run up the scoreboard,” said Coolen. “They are offensively strong and fast, so our focus has to be good defensive hockey. We have to keep it tight, but this is our chance to play against the best in the league - and I know we can rebound from Sunday. It is in the past.”