Paisley Pirates shoot Guildford down in flames
Paisley Pirates went into their clash with Guildford Flames at the Lagoon in midNovember 1994 on the back of a solid undefeated run of seven matches which had pulled them right into the top half of the British League Division One.
The previous weekend, they had racked up an impressive 29 goals against Lee Valley Lions and Medway Bears in two home games.
It is interesting to note that rather than facing a schedule of maybe 25 games these days in the Scottish National League, back then the club were looking at closer to 60 fixtures a season.
Their opponents on this night, the Guildford Flames, were normally one of the top teams at this level.
But they had had an indifferent start to the season, and in spite of having class players like Kurtenbach and Perlini in their ranks, in the days when the number of import players per team was limited, they were a few places below their opponents.
Nevertheless, a tight game was forecast, and that’s how it turned out.
In the end it was a late goal by Kidd that settled the nerves of the home support after Pirates had been clinging to a one goal advantage for the entire third period.
After the early exchanges Pirates took the lead in the seventh minute through a strike by Bauba.
The lead only lasted two minutes as, with Dunlop sitting out a penalty, Kurtenbach restored parity to tie the score.
Pirates were having slightly more of the play but went behind after 13 minutes when Thompson beat Rook, once more on the powerplay.
Again it only took two minutes for Pirates to level the score through skipper Bettens as the game swung from end to end.
In the middle session, Pirates settled the quicker and were in front after 24 minutes when arch sniper Kidd netted to stretch the score to 3-2.
The Pirates had an opportunity to go further ahead five minutes later on the powerplay as Thompson sat out a high sticks call.
Koulekov duly stretched the lead to two with the extra player.
Back came the Flames and Campbell halved the deficit just after the halfway mark to keep the crowd on the edge of their seats.
Thompson then tied the scores again at 4-4 after 34 minutes, but within seconds Bettens had found the net once more to restore a slender 5-4 advantage.
Both teams continued to press but there were no further goals in the second period, leaving the tie tantalisingly poised with a one goal advantage to Pirates with the final period to come.
In a tight and unsurprisingly nervy final 20 minutes both teams had chances to score a crucial goal, but with both netminders in outstanding form during that period neither team could make the critical breakthrough.
That was until two minutes from the end as Pirates put the game to bed.
Bettens fed Kidd and the tall striker wasted no time in dispatching the puck expertly into the net, sending the home fans into ecstasy while giving the Flames and even longer trip back to Surrey with nothing to show for their efforts after a thoroughly entertaining game in Paisley.