Tayside loss leaves Clan with a mountain to climb

Braehead Clan handed themselves an uphill task in the first leg of their play-off quarter final clash with Dundee Stars.

Clan got off to a poor start as Brett Switzer’s effort was parried back out to Justin Faryna, who was on hand to fire the beyond Michal Zajkowski from close range.

Faryna cranked up the pressure with his second effort of the night from right in front of the crease but Zajkowski was on hand to block his effort this time out as he kept the scoreline down.

Scott Pitt tried to restore parity with a fine strike at the other end but Joe Fallan was more than a match for the hosts.

Into the second period and Clan finally hit back through Alex Leavitt early on.

The Clan man drifted inward from wide right, beating a handful of defencemen before lifting the puck over Fallon and into the back of the net.

Zajkowski managed to block both Kevin Hart and Cale Tanaka as the home side looked to get themselves back in front, but they finally managed to do so on the powerplay in the middle session.

And it was to be Felix Poulin’s original strike from the blue line which caused all the problems.

His effort was parried back out as far as Mikael Lidhammar, who tucked away Dundee’s second goal of the night.

A chance from Poulin early in the third forced a reaction save from Zajkowski, with Craig Peacock going close down the other end to test Fallon.

But Vinny Scarsella was in the right place at the right time to add a third for Dundee as Braehead succumbed to defeat ahead of the second leg.