The Flyers final game in this season’s Challenge Cup competition saw the visit of the Glasgow Clan who were very much in the hunt for a place in the semifinals. The Flyers were missing the injured Justin Ducharme and Jonas Emmerdahl who left the game early the night before in Manchester and Christian Purboo got the start in net. The Clan were at full strength.
The game had a fast paced start as both teams went end to end in the first 7 minutes and there were very few whistles but neither team seriously troubled the netminders. The visitors opened the scoring at 7:32 when they attacked down the left hand side and Brayden Burke fed the puck to Cade Neilson whose shot from the high slot found a hole through Purboo’s pads. The Flyers were two behind after 9:15 when on a delayed penalty call for Charging on Mason Alderson the Clan kept the puck in the Flyers zone and eventually found space for a shot with Deven Sideroff’s effort appearing to take a deflection and pop up over the glove of Purboo into the top corner of the net. The first serious save of the game for Sami Aittokallio came at 12:30 when he held a snap shot from Garet Hunt who was positioned at the right circle. In the 15th minute Purboo got a blocker to a shot from Richard Jarusek on the rush. The Flyers keeper appeared to get a piece of a shot from Burke in the 17th minute that also came of the post as the Clan ended the period the dominant side.
The Clan extended their lead at 22:18 when Didrik Svendsen put a big hit on Hugo Roy along the boards but the Clan recycled the puck and found Roy in wide open space at the circles and he sniped the puck over the glove of Purboo. In the 23 minute a huge hit by Jeremy Masella on Alex Forbes behind the Clan net drew a reaction from Felix Pare who dropped the gloves with the Flyers blueliner with the outcome being matching majors for fighting but nothing else. Josh Winquist had a sniff of a chance at the side of the net in the 24th minute but Aittokallio did enough to shut down his short side post. Keaton Jameson was next to test the Clan netiminder with a snapshot in the 26th minute that was straight into the logo of Aittokallio. A stretch pass in the 28th minute released Alderson who went in on the Clan goal and as he got the netminder moving the wrong way he slid the puck just beyond the opposite post. In the 32nd minute a scrum around the Clan crease saw Masella and Ryan Nicholson get picked out as well as Darien Kielb despite Aittokallio also appearing to throw punches and the Clan went on the games first and as it turned out only powerplay. The Flyers penalty kill which has been strong in recent games dealt with a Clan powerplay that hadn’t scored in their last 7 games and near the end of the kill the home side fashioned a short handed chance that Ethan Somoza and Giordano Finoro just couldn’t quite get a handle on a bouncing puck. The Flyers returned to full strength but less than 30 seconds later they went further behind at 33.52 when Roy once again showed a clinical finish to beat Purboo on the glove side. The Clan scored another less than 60 seconds later when an initial shot by Burke was blocked and with Purboo having set himself for the shot he couldn’t recover his net as the puck fell back into the path of the Clan player who buried it into the opposite corner at 34:44. The Fifers caught a break in the 37th minute as Tristin Langan stepped in on the home goal and although he slid the puck past Purboo he was denied by the far post. Brodie Kay had the final attempt on goal of the period as he forced a save from Aittokallio with his shot from the slot.
The starting netminders for both sides were relieved to start the third period with Shane Owen and Lucas Brine respectively entering the game. Brine almost gave the Flyers a consolation in the 46th minute as he attempted to play the puck behind his net and mishandled but the angle was too tight for Hunt to hit the open net as the puck bounced off the near post. Although the Flyers enjoyed more zone time in the Clan end of the ice and they increased their shot volume there were very few quality chances to break the goose egg. The Clan were content to keep things tight and they scaled back on their fore check to play a more defensive game. Brine’s best save came with a couple of minutes remaining when he blockered away a rising shot by Vlastimil Dostalek after a set up by Kay.
Pic Credits – Jillian McFarlane and Derek Young
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