Clan edge it over Germans
Victory follows nine-goal thriller
Craig Ritchie
Braehead Clan took advantage of the intu Cup with a victory in a nine-goal thriller on Saturday night.
New head coach John Tripp got off to the best possible start on the Clan bench at home, getting one over his former mentor and ex-Clan man Paul Gardner on the opposite bench.
However, Clan were made to work hard for victory as German visitors, Lowen Frankfurt raced out of the traps to open the scoring inside two minutes.
Vladslav Filin was the man to hit the back of the net, bearing down on goal before firing past Clan goalie Ryan Nie with relative ease.
Frankfurt then doubled their lead a few minutes later as Wade McLeod drifted in from wide on the right hand side before beating Nie with a vicious strike to double his side’s lead.
But to their credit, Tripp’s Clan continued to battle away and they started to fight their way back into the clash.
Brett Jaeger in the Frankfurt goal was having to be at his very best to keep the scoreline at 2-0.
But his luck eventually ran out as Jacob Doty’s strike flew over the goalie’s left shoulder to reduce the scoring to just the one before the end of the first period.
Clan came out flying in the second, with Matt Haywood levelling up the scores early on as he struck low beyond Jaeget to complete the comeback and level up the scoring.
The game was fast developing into a classic and Craig Peacock was soon played in by Cameron Burt as he came in from the right hand side to notch his third preseason goal to force the home side in front.
But Paul Gardner’s men weren’t for backing down.
They soon hit back again to level the scores as Nils Lisegang swept home from close range after Nie had blocked two good shots.
The Germans changed goalies as Jaeger sat out the third, replaced by Florian Proske, and he was beaten by Craig Cescon’s effort, with Clan taking a 4-3 lead.
But the lead again was shortlived as CJ Stretch fired home a effort to gave the 300-strong fans who came over from Germany something else to cheer about as the game neared to a close.
It was Doty this time who managed to kill off the Germans’ hopes, being assisted by Jordan Buesa, who moved in on Proske to tee up Doty to sweep home the winner.