Fife Flyers rally fans for huge Hogmanay showdown with Glasgow Clan at Fife Ice Arena

The team go into the final fixture of 2023 looking for a win to send the fans home happy – and kickstart their play-off bid in 2024.

Tom Coolen, head coach, took many positives from a loss to Clan at Braehead last night, and is looking to deliver a long overdue win to halt a worrying run of losses which have come amid injuries to a number of key players.

Key forward Collin Shirley is back in the line-up, and he could be joined by new signing Drake Pilon who arrived in time for last night’s action only to be sidelined when his kit went missing in transit. The club is hoping it can be tracked down in time to allow him to lace up for his debut tonight.

Pilon is a former team mate of Troy Lajeunesse from their University of Prince Edward Island days, and joined Flyers from Kalamazoo Wings of the ECHL.

Former Guildford Flames goalie Kevin Lindsjoug has also arrived in Kirkcaldy as cover for the injured Shane Owen, but his debut was thwarted when he was not cleared to play in time – much to the frustration of the team.

Owen left the ice late in Saturday’s loss to Belfast Giants, and didn’t figure in the Boxing Day defeat at the hands of Dundee Stars which he watched from the team bench.

Coolen also has a new defenceman waiting in the wings who is expected here at the start of January – another key piece of the jigsaw with Stephen Desrocher out with a broken finger until the start of the year.

Coolen summed it up: “Too few guys playing too many minutes” and added: “There are lots of games to play and we just have to get through this tough time. We are competitive, we have gone close with players out - we need everyone back and healthy. We are not far away - we just need to tweak it.”

After the 10-1 loss to Dundee – a game Coolen said he wanted to forget – the coach was much happier with the performance in defeat to Clan.

“We had good focus and it was a good hockey game,” he said. “We played hard and had chances. We had chances to tie the game and maybe win it.I can take good positives from this.”