The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Fife’s winning streak ended at Guildford
ICE HOCKEY: Flames’ empty net goal seals Flyers’ fate on road
GUILDFORD FLAMES 4 FIFE FLYERS 2
Fife Flyers’ three-game winning run, which took them to the top of the Elite League, skidded to a halt last night at Guildford.
The English team had lost their last two games, but finally subdued the visitors with an empty net goal inside the final two minutes.
Jamie Crooks fired the home side ahead after eight minutes and Sam Jones levelled from a Danick Gauthier pass seven minutes later.
Calle Ackered put Flames ahead for a second time after only 54 seconds of the middle session on the power play.
Back came Fife with Chase Schaber netting in the 29th minute on the power play with assists from Tim Crowder and Scott Aarssen.
But Kruise Reddick claimed Flames’ third eight minutes later and John Dunbar made it 4-2 by scoring when Fife gambled by removing their netminder to have six skaters.
On Saturday former Coventry Blaze hit-man Crowder played a major part in securing a 6-3 win for fired-up Fife at Kirkcaldy.
The Canadian scored two goals and set-up two others to complete a league double over the Midlands side.
The victory was set-up by a 4-2 firstperiod scoreline and the sides drew the second stanza 1-1 with Fife winning the third 1-0.
Caro Finucci’s two goals and Chase Schaber and Kyle Just with singles completed Fife’s scoring with former Flyers star Evan Bloodoff netting one of Coventry’s strikes.
Dundee Stars won back-to-back games over the weekend by defeating reigning Challenge Cup champions Belfast Giants 4-3 before claiming their first victory of the league campaign, a 5-3 success against Manchester Storm.
Dundee led three times in Northern Ireland on Saturday night in their Challenge Cup Group A match against holders Belfast.
Omar Pacha’s men played a solid defensive game despite being without two defenders due to injury and losing one more during the game.
Stars were 1-0 ahead after the first period thanks to Kevin Dufour who slipped the puck past Belfast keeper Shane Owen for a short-handed goal.
The home side tied the game in the second period through Curtis Hamilton who beat Alex Leclerc in the 30th minute.
Dufour put Dundee back in front on the powerplay, flying towards Owen before beating him glove-side in the 37th minute.
However, in less than a minute, the Giants were back on level terms as Ben Lake tucked away a pass from behind the goal.
The teams were tied at 2-2 after two periods and in the third session Dundee again went back in front.
This time it was Anthony Beauregard putting the Taysiders ahead after he went clean through on a breakaway and slowed down at the last second to create space between him and a sprawling Owen before calmly slotting the puck into the goal in the 52nd minute.
Beauregard bagged his second in the final minutes and it was another shorthanded goal.
The Canadian centreman recovered possession in his own end before picking out an empty Belfast goal from 60 feet.
Adam Keefe’s men offered a late response through Brian Ward as his shot slipped through the grasp of Leclerc and crossed the line with 17 seconds left. However, it was too late for the reigning champions and Dundee took the two road points to move further clear in Group A.
Dundee put in a tremendous display of shot-blocking but Leclerc still stopped 65 of the 68 shots that got to him.
The Stars picked up right where they left off last night and were 2-0 up against Storm after the first period.
Defencemen Reilly O’Connor, Jagger Dirk and Brett Stovin, who had dropped back to provide cover, were all missing through injury.
Dufour bagged his third goal of the weekend after just one minute and Dundee moved two goals in front through Egils Kalns on the powerplay after 11 minutes.
It took Storm 39 minutes to break down the home defence and they needed a powerplay to do so with forward Scott Simmonds netting.
In the final stanza, Pacha’s side continued to dominate and quickly put themselves 4-1 ahead as Dufour netted a second brace of the weekend before Matt Marquardt’s doorstep finish gave the home team a comfortable lead 92 seconds later.
Ryan Finnerty’s Storm rallied late in the third period to pull it back to 4-3 with the goals coming from Layne Ulmer and captain Dallas Ehrhardt.
However, with 12 seconds left on the clock, Beauregard fired home his second long-range empty net goal of the weekend.
The Stars responded well to last weekend’s disappointing defeats and have moved themselves up to seventh in the league table and four points clear of the other three teams in their cup group.