Flyers look to keep up play-off charge

Fife Flyers entertain Elite Ice Hockey League bottom side Nottingham Panthers on Thursday with two more points the target for head coach Tom Coolen and his playoff-chasing squad.

Sunday’s 4-3 overtime success over high-flying Belfast Giants was a major confidence boost for a club which has been on the up since the turn of the year.

It’s been a fabulous run but the Kirkcaldy club can’t afford any slip-ups now as the regular season rapidly comes to a close.

Coolen felt Belfast played a good game but said: “I thought we started a little tentatively.

“We did not get pucks behind their defencemen and turned pucks over and consequently we did not get any pressure on them in the early stages of the game.

“After a while we played the game we were supposed to and we got our share of the chances a little later, but again it’s been our team all year long – we found a way to come back.

“We battled back from a 2-0, we battled back from a 3-2 and we found a way to win.

“That has been the story of this team, we have never quit and we did not quit when we were down 3-2.

“Pavlov scored a big goal to tie things up but they are all big goals when it is a one-goal hockey game playing against a good team and it was nice to score a power-play goal in overtime.

“I would say we played well at times but I was not 100% thrilled with our game but we will talk about that... you can’t knock the two points.

“We have got 11 out of 12 points going down the stretch and I don’t know if anybody else in the league can have that many.”