Puck drops on new league season for Fife Flyers with tough home opener

Austin Farley is set to ice for Flyers this weekend (Pic: Derek Young)Austin Farley is set to ice for Flyers this weekend (Pic: Derek Young)
Austin Farley is set to ice for Flyers this weekend (Pic: Derek Young)
Fife Flyers open a new league campaign this weekend with a testing home game against Manchester Storm - and coach Tom Coolen is looking to make a winning start.

The teams meet at Fife Ice Arena on Saturday (7:15pm) as the curtain rises on what could be a fascinating campaign.

Flyers have already set out their stall as a hard working, hard skating team, and an opening Challenge Cup win over Glasgow Clan got them off to the best possible start in that competition.

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Coolen got the team back into the play-offs last season, but it took until the second half of the campaign before the team ignited after being suffocated by an exhausting schedule and injuries. The aim this time round is to be firmly in the chasing pack rather than pushing for the last of the eight qualifying spots.

Coolen will welcome forward Austin Farley back this weekend after illness saw him miss the opening Challenge Cup ties - he returns to face the team he iced with last season.

But veteran forward Martin Latal remains sidelined as he recovers from the accidental hit which took him out of the warm-ups at the start of the opening friendly in Dundee. The former Sheffield Steelers’ skater has missed out on pre-season and has yet to find his way back into training on ice.

While he faces a waiting game, the team was put through its paces ahead of a visit from a revamped Storm outfit which had a good pre-season and opened its Challenge Cup with a solid 5-1 win over Guildford Flames, only to lose the return 4-3.

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Storm host Nottingham Panthers in the cup on Friday night before making the journey north to Fife, allowing Flyers to go at them with fresh legs.

Coolen is looking forward to a tight, competitive league, and admitted: “What has jumped out at me so far is that every team looks good, and they can all beat each other. Teams won’t win games just with talent alone. You have to be disciplined, you have to minimise your mistakes, and you have to work hard every night - in the past maybe talent alone could roll you on to a win, but I don’t see that happening.”

He expects a tough battle against Storm and knows Flyers will have to bring their A’ game to the ice pad - something he sees as key every game night.

“We have to play to our best to give ourselves a chance of winning and being successful,” he said. “We have to be ready to play. This is a good league and in many ways it’s wide open.”

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The coach is due to announce his leadership team this week. Defenceman Olivier LeBlanc wore the ‘C’ at the weekend and is one of several dressing-room leaders - he and Phelix Martineau were both captains at Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in the QMJHL.

> On Sunday Flyers travel to Dundee in a Challenge Cup game. The game has a 5:00pm face-off.

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