Fife Flyers: Jonas Emmerdahl - ‘we are fortunate to play for these fans and to pull on this jersey’

The Swedish defenceman made the surprise return to the dressing-room after a knee injury ended Noah Delmas’ season. Putting him on Injury Reserve (UIR) for the mandatory 90 days opened the door to Emmerdahl to don a gold, white and blue shirt again as cover.

He came back to Flyers after playing just four games with German third tier outfit, EV Lindau, but immediately stepped up his game to soak up the ice time at Belfast and again at home to Cardiff Devils on Sunday.

“It has been hectic,” he admitted. “I’ve not practiced with the team yet - it was straight on the ferry to Belfast and into two games back to back, but it is good to be back.” Emmerdahl was more than happy to return after Todd Dutiaume, general manager, reached out.

“I had no doubts about coming back to help,” he said. “I have been skating at home the whole season and am pretty fit. Timing on ice was a bit tougher in the first two games, but I feel I am right back into it when you play against two really good teams.

“It was fun to see people coming in cheering even although these are tough times.”

The defenceman had been following Flyers’ struggles from afar this season, and his hope is to help rekindle confidence in the team and, hopefully, give the fans a win to celebrate.

“I understand there have been tough times and guys don’t have a lot of confidence so one game at a time. The aim is to get a win and get the confidence back - the players and fans need that.”

“We are fortunate to play for these fans and to pull on this jersey.”

Meanwhile, interim coach, Johnny Curran admitted Sunday’s performance against Cardiff was “not their best work” as his team went down 6-2. The damage was caused in the opening period as the team fell 3-0 behind early on.

Curran admitted it was hard to keep players focussed as the losses continued to mount and off-ice distractions included more dressing-room upheaval with Ryan Foss quitting the team last week.

But he stressed: “I cannot speak highly enough of them. They keep coming, keep working and that’s difficult when you give up leads.

“It was nice to score a couple of goals but this was not our best work. A 3-0 first period lead takes away everything we want to do as a group and stay in the game as long as we can, and it is hard to sell it to the guys to put bodies online to win hockey games.

“It encourages me to put the young guys out, and they are enjoying the time - it is not fair on our seven forwards going out every other shift and playing that game.”

The reality for Flyers is that there is no time to regroup or find any respite.

Wednesday takes the team south to face Sheffield Steelers before a weekend road trip, returning to home ice on Sunday to face Glasgow Clan.