Fife Flyers savour huge win to shatter Sheffield Steelers’ unbeaten road run

Fife Flyers delivered their finest 60 minutes of the season so far to secure a superb 2-1 victory over Sheffield Steelers which ended the league leader’s season-long perfect record on the road. They went into the game short benched as Aleksi Makela joined Jonas Emmerdahl and Stephen Desrocher on the list of absentees from the blue line, but Tom Coolen’s team dug deeper than deep to emerge with a thoroughly deserve win.

This was a thrilling, hugely impressive team performance. From netminder Kevin Lindskoug’s ‘man of the match’ stonewalling of Steelers’ forwards to the immense defensive work of guys like Brady Poteau and Sean Giles, to the relentless work ethic of forwards such as Kyle Osterberg, Troy Lajeunesse and Drake Pilon. The fans can only dream what this team might do at full strength and healthy ...

Flyers came under huge pressure at times, but emerged time and again with the puck as they plotted a perfect path through this game. They were focussed, disciplined and used the puck exceptionally well throughout. Any result other than a win in regulation time would not have done justice to the effort put it. This time they got the break they have been waiting on all season.

Flyers took the opening period 1-0 with Casey Gilling flicked home after netminder Matt Greenfield parried Johann Erikkson’s shot with eight minutes on the clock. They deservedly took that lead into the first period break, and nurtured it through some huge pressure from Steelers whose finishing was too often wayward, and, when it was accurate, Lindskoug was a barrier that couldn’t be breached - a huge double save in the opening minute set the tone for an absorbing period of hockey.

It was key that Fife went into the second break still ahead, and they achieved that goal, plotting their way through each shift, working hard and making as few mistakes as possible, and the more Steelers pushed, the more they stood firm. A second goal at 51:04 was no more than they deserved as Fife broke out of their zone, Lajeunesse carrying the puck, and weighting his pass to Pilon perfectly for a clinical finish from the right.

Kevin Tansey finally broke Lindskoug’s shut out with five minutes to play - his low shot through traffic beating the netminder who was maybe not fully settled after arguing with the refs seconds earlier his helmet had been dislodged and the game ought to have stopped, but it was a blip in an otherwise flawless game.

With 1:39 to play, Steelers pulled their netminder, and then called a time out. With 20 seconds left, Tom Coolen called his time out as he set out the final play to secure a huge win. Fife had one shot at the empty net which went wide, but the wound down the clock to savour a special moment; one that might just be pivotal in their bid for the play-offs.