Fife Flyers: short handed goal and penalties kill bid for key Manchester road win

They led twice against Manchester Storm only to concede two powerplay goals early in the third period. That plus a killer short handed strike saw them go down 4-2, with all eyes now on Sunday’s crucial showdown with Clan at Fife Ice Arena.

Flyers iced without the injured Dillon Lawrence, with Liam MacDougall the healthy scratch. Defenceman Reece Cochrane was also pulled after warm up.

Flyers made the perfect start with Mikael Johansson netting with just 47 seconds on the clock - he’d already hit the bar.

But, instead of taking that lead into the first break they conceded another short-handed counter at the worst possible time - Cameron Critchlaw breaking and netting just six seconds from the buzzer.

Flyers netted the only goal of the middle period - Brayden Sherbinin flicking home at 36:18 - to regain the upper hand, but then hit penalty trouble at the start of the third period with three players in the bin.

Chris Gerrie was handed a five-minute penalty for cross checking, and, at the same time Johansson was binned for a face-off violation.

Veteran forward Chris Lawrence followed with a cross checking penalty, and Storm pounced, delivering two powerplay goals to grab a 3-2 lead - Dallas Erhardt tied the game at 45:05, and Anthony DeLuca struck less than 40 seconds later.

With 1:43 left on the clock, Flyers called a time out, and left Shane Owen on the bench to ice an extra skater. Storm killed off any hopes of a late equaliser when Zac Herman hit the empty net for a 4-2 win at 58:50, Storm taking the third period on a 3-0 scoreline.