Fife Flyers target move up Elite League standings at start of crucial December

Aiden Wilson has high fives for a young fan after Sunday's big win (Pic: Derek Young)Aiden Wilson has high fives for a young fan after Sunday's big win (Pic: Derek Young)
Aiden Wilson has high fives for a young fan after Sunday's big win (Pic: Derek Young)
Fife Flyers head into the crucial December schedule with a new spring in their step - and their sights set on progress up the table.

The team sit tenth in the Elite League, but are just four points off the top eight play-off berths. A good result in Altrincham on Saturday will take them level with Manchester Storm - the team directly above them.

Flyers have a decent record on the tight ice pad in north-west England, and will come up against a Manchester side that has just fired its coach after they hit the buffers following an initially bright start to the season. Sunday brings Fife back to Kirkcaldy for a match-up with Guildford Flames (5:15pm) and another game they can take points from to re-ignite their campaign after a testing autumn.

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Last weekend’s big 5-3 win over Sheffield Steelers could be one of the turning points in the campaign.

The team played with more self belief, and it was no co-incidence that came on the back of having a full and healthy roster. Nikolai Shulga was the healthy scratch - the forward, ironically, making way for defenceman Madi Dibhanbek who turned in one of his best games on the wing.

Coolen also saw big performances from key players and now wants to keep the momentum going.

“We knew we could win,” he said. “It had been coming. A lot of factors came together - we were injury free, we had a full roster, our new signings had time to settle in and blend. We have hard working players here and everything fell into place. Stats wise we won the face-off battle, defence gave up few goals, our special teams delivered - we want to keep that form going.” Coolen has said for several weeks his team was trending in the right direction, despite a long losing streak which, last week, saw Kazakh forward Maxim Musdorov depart the dressing-room citing cultural and language differences which made it hard to settle in Fife. He also added Ben Brown on a two-way deal with Dundee Rockets, and was able to give him - and Romford Raiders’ skater Aiden Wilson - ice time against Steelers. The club is working to get them into the line-up as much as possible, adding some much needed depth to the roster.

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Coolen added: “We face a big weekend. We want points and we want to keep progressing. I look at our new imports and they are settling in well. They came in without the benefit of training camp and it takes time to blend in - they are big, experienced guys and they are starting to motor.

“Our second line has been rebuilt - we lost Latal, Johnny Curran is out for the season and Gatiyatov went home. We have had guys banged up. These are factors - not excuses.”

> Flyers stage their toy appeal for the Cottage Centre at Sunday’s game.

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