Fife Flyers in for treat as Canadian touring uni team comes to Kirkcaldy

The club welcome University of Quebec-Trois-Rivieres to Kirkcaldy for the very first time as part of a UK tour in which they have swept Manchester Storm 6-5, Dundee Stars 4-1 and Nottingham Panthers, who they beat 2-1. Saturday’s game at Fife Ice Arena has a 7:15pm face-off.

The game will mark the debut of Flyers’ new Canadian forward Johnny Curran who arrived in town at the start of the week after missing the opening weekend on duty with GB in pre-Olympics warm-up action.

The skater, who hails from Ontario, brings goals and experience to the roster - he previously iced with Belfast Giants and Coventry Blaze.

But, fans will have to wait to see Martin Latal icing as the former Sheffield Steelers forward recovers from the injury he sustained in an unfortunate collision during the warm-up at Dundee on Saturday. He won’t ice against Trois Rivieres.

The visitors are one of the top university teams with a host of honours under their belt, and Coolen is looking forward to a good game.

“They are a good hockey team,” he said. “They have guys I would recruit when building a team. They have won championships and play hard.” Coolen drew many positives from the opening weekend losses to Dundee Stars, and he plans to use this weekend’;s final game to run the rule over his rebuilt squad before the Challenge Cup gets underway in earnest.

“It’s all about evaluating the players,” he said. “I’m enjoying my team every day - getting to know them, and they have all impressed me so far.”

Flyers have again gone with a fast-skating hard working roster, one with just three import returnees from last season - and Coolen knows to make an impact he needs everyone on their game.

“We need everything out of everyone every night,” he said. “That’s the reality of challenging against teams in this league with much larger budgets. We have to be fast and skilled and we have to work hard, and the minute we stop doing that we don’t give ourselves a chance to win hockey games.”

Coolen also praised his quartet of players from Kazakhstan - defenceman Madi Dikanbek and forwards Artur Gatiyatov, Maxim Musorov and Nikolai Shulga who impressed fans on the opening weekend.

“They are great on the puck and it is tough to take it from them,” he said. “They know each other, and did well, and have more to give once they settle in. They are good young guys and bring some youth to our line up.”