Dutiaume chasing improvement in form

Fife Flyers coach Todd Dutiaume must turn the Kirkcaldy ice hockey club’s fortunes around after they skidded to their sixth straight defeat.

Fife have won only once in their last 12 games and tonight they entertain Elite League pace-setters Sheffield Steelers

The Yorkshire club enjoy a four-goal lead coming into the second-leg of the Challenge Cup quarter-final after winning 5-1 at the House of Steel in the first leg last week.

However, the game was tight until the 47th minute when Steelers went 2-0 up after Matias Sointu scored their second goal.

Three more followed between then and the 56th minute with Fife’s only counter coming after 53 minutes from Michael Mcnicholas.

Sheffield lead the title race with 39 points from 23 games while Fife prop up the tenstrong table with 13 points from the same number of fixtures.

The Scots have only won six games in regulation time while Steelers have won 14 and the Yorkshire club go into the game after a 6-5 win over Guildford Flames on Saturday.

They also edged Coventry Blaze 2-1 in the Midlands on Friday and beat Guildford 4-3 at home after winning 4-1 at arch rivals Nottingham Panthers and 5-3 at home to Panthers.

Previously, they beat Glasgow Clan 3-2 after overtime and their last defeat was at Cardiff Devils, a 5-4 reverse in overtime on December 18.

Dutiaume has urged his men to produce for 60 minutes in every game as there are signs that the squad has what it takes to compete with the best.

They only lost 3-2 at titlechasing Cardiff Devils on Sunday after being locked at 2-2 after 28 minutes.

Devils’ winner came from Stephen Dixon in the 45th minute.

Dutiaume, pictured, blamed individual errors for the defeat and said: “A lot of times you can play a strong hockey game and not come out with a result and that is probably what happened to us at Cardiff.

“Once again, we have to focus on a couple of individual errors. That power play goal was a miss-assignment at a face-off, one guy standing in the wrong spot and two turnovers in the neutral zone.

“That was the game in a nutshell.”

Elsewhere, in the league Glasgow Clan entertain Belfast Giants (face-off 6.30pm) as they look to build on their weekend win at Dundee Stars