Fife Flyers post solid point and performance in OT loss to Glasgow Clan

In a scrappy but entertaining game, they could easily have taken the extra point - and now have to find ways of doing that to kick-start their season.

The speed, precision and slickness which created their first three goals has to be the route ahead. The quick puck movement opened up Clan, and a few more moves like that would surely have sunk Corey Neilson’s team. This is a poor Braehead team when you consider the budget sunk into its recruitment this summer.

For Tom Coolen, the challenge is to add the missing pieces to his roster. Former Nottingham Panthers’ import Massimo Carozza is due in town on Monday, and he will certainly not be the last change the coach makes.

“We are not sitting back - we will continue to improve our team,” she said. “To get a point was big. You want two, but all in all that was a close game right to the very end. It was a balanced, even game with good performances out of a lot of people. It was a game of ups and downs with a lot of emotion in different ways from our team across the 60 minutes.

“The fans saw the team battle tonight - I see a lot of progress.”

That last point wasn’t lost on his Clan counterpart, with Neilson saying: “These games always scramble-y, and Flyers play with energy - that was a team that never quit and gave us a ton of problems in our zone.”

The opening period saw Flyers create some good chances before they went ahead through Max Musorov’s shot form the top of the circle that beat Lucas Brine high with 9:44 played. Tyson McLellan levelled at 11:41 when he got on his own rebound off the back boards to beat Shane Owen a little under two minutes later.

The second period was just 11 seconds old when Ryan Foss finished off a nice Patrick Kyte pass to grab a second lead for Flyers, but they were pulled back to level pegging after 33 minutes when Steven Seigo worked the puck to Cole Ully for a tap-in in front of the net. Five minutes later, Ully crashed home a shot from the point to put Clan 3-2 ahead with a powerplay goal.

The third was up and down affair, and it took Flyers until the 50th minute to get back on level pegging, with Chiodo’s pass to the net finding the tireless Phelix Martineau to turn it home.

Clan then reclaimed the lead through Sideroff as the game headed into the final two minutes, but their hopes of victory were halted when Flyers pulled Owen after a time out, and Cichy hit the net with 27 seconds left to play.

Overtime could have gone either way as both sides created chances. Rylan Schwarz had a howler of a miss at the back post -m rolling the puck across the face of the goal when it looked easier to score - but Clan finally struck at 63:10 with a fine shot from the right from Sideroff netting his second of the night.