Dutiaume praises netminder after Fife victory

Shane Owen made key saves to play a major part in Fife Flyers’ 3-1 victory over Guildford Flames on Saturday.

That’s the view of Fife coach Todd Dutiaume, whose men ground out the success at Fife Ice Arena.

It is Fife’s fourth success over Flames this season but Dutiaume singled out netminder Owen whose heroics in the first period were pivotal.

All the goals came in the third period with Paul Crowder breaking the deadlock after five minutes. Bari Mckenzie made it 2-0 six minutes later before Ian Watters pulled one back for Flames with less than five minutes remaining.

However, Brett Bulmer converted on an empty net after Flames gambled by withdrawing their netminder, Travis Fullerton, a former Edinburgh Capitals and Dundee Stars player. Bulmer’s goal came with 60 seconds left of a tense game.

Owen dealt with 36 shots and Fullerton with 30 and Dutiaume said: “At the fourminute mark we had a 2-0 lead and they scored.

“You could see we tightened up slightly but I thought we looked more mature in that situation. We did not collapse backwards in front of Owen.

“We pushed out and went after pucks.” He added: “Shane had to come up with a few heroics. If he doesn’t make two of those saves we might be looking at a game that got away from us.”