Fife Flyers’ hefty loss in Sheffield as champions deliver emphatic win

A 4-1 second period blew what had been a tight quarter-final first leg wide open, leaving Tom Coolen’s team with the task of netting five against the league champions just to draw level on aggregate when the teams meet at Fife Ice Arena on Sunday.

And to put that into context, Steelers have never given up five goals in any game this season.

Flyers landed the toughest play-off draw possible after failing to beat Dundee Stars on the last day of the season - and fans will be looking to them to finish the season on home ice on a high. A win on the night would certainly send them into summer with a bit of a buzz after a season which saw the club rekindle its fan base and make huge strides on and off the ice.

They will have to be much better defensively if they are to make inroads on Steelers’ lead and have any hopes of setting up a grandstand finale - and Aaron Fox is unlikely to let his team ease up as he chases a Grand Slam.

Had Flyers delivered a win against Dundee Stars on the last day of the regular season - instead of a 4-1 loss - their play-off journey would have been very different. A head to head with Steelers was always going to be the toughest of the four ties being played this weekend.

The game started well with Flyers tying the opening period 1-1. Vitalijs Pavlovs should have put Flyers ahead with one of the game’s first attacks, being found in front but unable to slot past Matt Greenfield from close range with only some 30 seconds played. Flyers created the better of the chances in the opening phases before the hosts gradually grew into the game.

Mitchell Balmas’ curl and drag brought Owen into a smart save, with Flyers’ goalie also making an excellent pad save to keep the game scoreless. The deadlock was broken thanks to an excellent Niklas Nevalainen pass across Flyers’ zone to Balmas who one-timed under Owen’s arm with 10:40 played. Fife were unlucky to be behind and after a couple of tip attempts were deservedly level – Troy Lajeunesse’s one-timer from the circle off Kyle Osterberg’s feed tied things up at 17:14.

But the second period saw Steelers exploit Fife’s defensive shortcomings to blow the game open. At 22:58, Cole Shudra beat Owen from an angle to put the hosts back ahead and then hit the post on the next shift before Balmas slapped home a Daniel Ciampini pass only 80 seconds later.

Fife replied with a top shelf goal from Max Humitz at 29:33 of an excellent Teemu Pulkinen pass behind the net.

Steelers kept coming and went 4-2 up through Shudra, and Sam Jones made it 5-2 with Owen flattened by a Steeler who was checked into him by one of his own defenceman,

The gap became four goals as Brandon Whistle shothome, and Mikko Juusola made it 7-2 one minute later. Humitz rang the red light for a second time to cut the gap, but hopes of holden out were dashed as Marc-Olivier Vallerand bagged his 100th goal for the Yorkshire side at 50:36 re-established the home side’s five-goal advantage.

Nicholls saw a shot come back off the inside of Owen’s post with just over six minutes to play as things threatened to get better for the Steelers. Owen stopped Balmas from completing a hat trick for a second time late on, before a scramble in front of Greenfield saw Colin Shirley shovel the puck over the line to make it 8-4 with 2:40 left. Brett Neumann pounced on a bad giveaway in the Flyers end to get the Steelers back five ahead 27 seconds later.