Fife Flyers’ hefty road loss as injuries bite deep into roster

Sunday took them to Nottingham Panthers were they were soundly beaten 5-1. It was an injury hit bench which took to the ice with defencemen Olivier LeBlanc and Patrick Kyte both out along with forward Johnny Curran - and that lack of depth was exploited by Panthers.

Flyers have a more than decent record in the Lace City, but this one was beyond them.

Ollie Betteridge shot through a screen at 11:38. Shane Owen in net thought he'd been interfered with and got coach Tom Coolen to challenge the goal, but without success. Flyers then killed off the resulting penalty, but were two down at 17:16 as Kristoff Kontos snuck a shot through Owen's five-hole.

Sam Herr made it 3-0 9:41 into period two when he followed up a Didrik Henbrant breakaway, took the pass behind the net and slotted into an open net. Two quick-fire goals then killed off the game before the middle period was out. Kontos fed Hugo Roy on a two on one for the latter to beautifully deke Owen and make it 4-0 at 36:43, while 56 seconds later Tim Doherty one-timed Quinn Wichers' feed into the top of Owen's net.

Lucas Chiodo got Flyers on the board 54 seconds into the final period, but that was as good as it got for the visitors who were well beaten by the final buzzer.

Panthers struck a post late on, but the points - their first in the league - were already secured.

Flyers have work to do. Played five, won one is a poor start – they cannot afford to lose touch with the chasing pack this early on.