Fife Flyers: injury worries as Flyers face three crucial steps to play-offs

The race for a spot in the post season competition has gone to the wire, and it all hinges on Flyers raising their game and delivering nothing less than a four-point weekend.

Step one - they must beat Dundee Stars at Fife Ice Arena on Saturday.

Step two - Flyers need Glasgow Clan to lose their last remaining fixture in regulation time on the road to Sheffield Steelers.

Step three - Flyers must go to title-chasing Guildford Flames on Sunday, and win.

It’s all or nothing for a team which has struggled to win just 11 league games from 52 starts this season, and been hampered by a worrying lack of offensive firepower - with just 114 goals scored, their total is well below every other team.

Qualification was within their own hands until a poor 5-1 capitulation to Clan on home ice earlier this month.

Flyers have now won just one win from their last 13 outings, and while they have a decent track record against ten-placed Stars, they have not beaten Guildford all season.

They go into the weekend with a couple of injury worries.

Swedish forward Lucas Sandstrom will go through the club’s concussion protocols this week after being taken out of the game in Cardiff early on with a late hit.

Flyers asked for the check to be reviewed - Sandstrom had made a hit and was in no position to protect himself when a second Devils player checked him into the boards - but it was rejected.

Kamerin Nault also missed training on Tuesday as a precautionary measure after taking the brunt of a slapshot in Sunday’s defeat in Wales.

Both players will be given every opportunity to make the line-up and ice against Stars as the club’s target of a play-off spot is on the line.

Todd Dutiaume, head coach, said: “We are relying on favours or permutations elsewhere, but we have risen to the occasion before when it was needed.

“Mathematically we are not out of it by any means, and we cannot look past Saturday’s game.

We have a favourable record against Dundee so we have to show up and put in the work, and then look to see how Glasgow get on.”

The permutations could roll into the last day of the regular season on Sunday with Guildford bidding for a first ever EIHL league title.

They take on Belfast Giants on Saturday, and a win there would mean they’d be playing for the crown on home ice against Flyers.