Opening home loss, but Fife Flyers draw positives from first weekend

After powering their way to victory over Glasgow, there wasn’t enough in the tank when Dundee Stars came to Kirkcaldy on Saturday and skated to a 3-0 win.

The shutout may have been disappointing, but the positives far outweighed the negatives for this new look team which has already impressed with its work-rate and commitment.

Add in a new import plus the return of four players to the line-up, and the fans can see the potential of what lies ahead.

Minor penalties interrupted the flow of this game, and Fife struggled to get going against a Stars outfit which played a tight game in its own zone.

Two of the three goals came on the powerplay, while Flyers couldn’t capitalise on a key five on three opportunity early in the second.

They needed the energy burst a goal would have brought, but the night belonged to Stars’ netminder Anton Svensson who savoured his shut out.

The Taysiders went ahead at 11:58 with Fynn Page binned for holding - Phillipe Sanche firing home a fine left wing shot.

The second period saw Dillon Lawrence twice take a stick to the face in successive shifts, resulting in double minors for Carter Folk and Chris Gerrie.

Christian Hausinger and Zack Phillips had chances on the powerplay, but Fife couldn’t make the breakthrough, and then fell 2-0 in arrears after 35 minutes when Elijah Barriga netted from in front of the net.

Everything hinged on the next goal, and when it fell to Stars at 42:09 - a fine shot from the right from Chris Gerrie - it really was game over.

There was a sense of frustration at some of the calls - mostly the result of tired legs and minds - and even a penalty shot awarded couldn’t make a difference as Dillon Lawrence failed to find a way past Svensson.

In the closing moments, Lucas Sandstrom and Hugo Reinhardt were handed five minutes for fighting after a tired looking scrap.

> Mirror of Merit: 3 Reece Cochrane; 2. Dillon Lawrence; 1. Bari McKenzie