Fife Flyers: raising a dram to St Andrews’ Night win & four-point weekend
At the start of the season, Jamie Russell pointed to a bottle of Scotch whisky on his desk, with plans to open it and have a dram after each win. After an 18-game winless streak, how appropriate it was uncapped on St Andrews Night.
Felix Kozak, one of the club’s new owners had also flown across from in New York to see the team in action for the very first time, and was able to savour the moment in the dressing-room, while in the stands there were even some ‘taps aff’ celebrations.
“That was brilliant” said Josh Winquist, man of the match. “Shirts off for the boys!”
“Four point weekend” was the chant round the rink as the team took its lap of honour - the first such clean sweep of the points since March 2024 - before going on to enjoy the moment.
It has been a long time coming, but even as the losses stacked up there was no sense of panic, and when pro sport is based entirely on results, it takes a resilient, and unified, dressing-room to keep a focus on the bigger picture.
“I don’t think we’ve ever doubted anything within the locker room,” said Garet Hunt. “Even in the games we’ve lost we’ve had the effort. We keep talking about how we need to stay positive and it’ll come, and I think after this weekend guys are starting to believe that more. We’re buying into what Jamie Russell has been saying, that wins will come. He’s a good coach, and we’re doing everything he’s saying.”
With key players out of the line-up through injury, others have soaked up the ice time. Gio Finoro logged 30 minutes in Friday’s win at Manchester Storm - the Saturday rest day before going again against Cardiff Devils could not have come at a better time.
“It feels like we have turned a corner,” said Russell. . “To step up and find ways to win shorthanded is incredible We understand fans' frustrations, but this is an amazing group. The guys have stuck with it.”
“Shane was outstanding tonight, Josh got the monkey off his back with goals, Karlsson was outstanding both games … a lot of guys stood out tonight.”
New Swedish signing Anton Karlsson revelled in his delayed after clearance delays left him in the stands last weekend.
“It was awesome to win both games,” he said. “A four-point weekend was great.”
On post-game media duties, Josh Winquist paid credit to his line-mates for creating the chances that led to the goals he needed.
“Don’t forget to say how good my pass was!” shouted Karlsson, waiting for his piece to camera.
“We’re getting healthy,” said Winquist. “Still got a few bodies out but we are getting some bounces that were going the other way at the beginning of the season. Pucks are going our way.”
The celebrations will be short lived however. Next weekend sees Flyers back on the road to Guildford on Saturday - a 20-hour round trip followed by a Sunday home game against Nottingham Panthers. The buzz from this four-point weekend will add to the resilience of the team as it logs another near 900-mile round. For a winning team, those journeys pass all the quicker.