Fife Flyers: sloppy show but team digs in to claim win over Manchester Storm

It was a night where too much time was spent in the defensive zone, and passes didn’t snap on to sticks, until a second period groove saw them turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead, which held until the final buzzer. On the plus side, it made for wins on the spin, and, in a league so tight, kept Fife firmly in the chasing pack. Sometimes you have to grit your teeth and grind ‘em out - and, if you do, these nights all contribute to your final standing.

The win did come at a cost with Kyle Osterberg sliding painfully into the boards and taking his time to get to the bench, but in his absence, Teem Pulkinnen led superbly and returned stats of 1+1. It could have been 2+1 as his long clearance out of the zone hit the empty Storm net in the dying seconds.

There was little to choose between the teams in an opening period which saw Storm doing most of the pushing and get their reward at 17:19 as Michael Korol - son of the late Bob Korol, former ice rink manager - delivered a neat finish off a perfect pass from Johnny Cornell.

Flyers came out for the second period much sharper, and that movement certainly caused Manchester some problems. Their equaliser came as Pulkinnen chased a puck and slid on his belly to release Collin Shirley who did the rest, beating netminder Evan Weninger at 23:04.

Brady Poteau then saw a great rebound drop for Lucas Chiodo who almost converted before Fife’s powerplay team delivered what became the game winner at 29:27. Johan Erikkson held the puck in the corner and timed his pass to perfection for Pulkinnen to pull the trigger.

Some golden chances were then passed up as Fife went on the powerplay before the second period - that third decisive goal never materialised as Storm upped the pressure again in the third, but couldn’t convert on two key powerplays; Sean Giles clearly indicating his opponent dived as he headed to the bin on a tripping call at 40:56..

As the clock wound down, Storm inevitably looked to pull Weninger. He went to the bench with 1:30 left on the clock, and the empty net survived one scare as Fife dug the puck out repeatedly to hold the visitors at bay.