WEEK 7 of the 2023/24 Elite Ice Hockey League season and the Flyers return to home ice to meet their West Coast rivals the Glasgow Clan for the first time in the league before making the long journey south on Sunday for their second meeting of the season against the Guildford Flames.
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 4th v GLASGOW CLAN @ FIFE ICE ARENA – FACE OFF 7.15pm
Recent Form Guide
We welcome the Clan for our first league encounter of the season with them after the two sides shared the spoils in Challenge Cup group action, each coming up with a convincing win on home ice. Since our last meeting with Clan on September 24th Glasgow have made a couple of additions to their roster. With Charlie Combs still on injured reserve American Matt Berry joined after playing last season in the German third tier with the Rostock Piranhas. A fortnight ago Canadian Reid Petryk was also added to the forward line and scored on his debut last weekend. The 30 year old has spent the last three seasons in Norway and before that had 4-5 seasons in the AHL. The Clan are poised to qualify for the knockout stages of the Challenge Cup as they have one final fixture remaining when they travel to the Dundee Stars and a win will see them finish with a .500 record which matches Fife’s. In their subsequent three group matches they lost home and away to the Belfast Giants and had a 4-1 home success against the Stars. In the league the Clan were winless in their opening four games during which time they did still manage to pick up three points. Their opening game was a 5-2 loss in Cardiff then their next three at home all went beyond regulation. High scoring encounters against the Coventry Blaze and Nottingham Panthers ended in shootout losses 5-6 and 6-7 respectively and this was followed by a 3-2 overtime win for the Sheffield Steelers. Last weekend they played the Guildford Flames at home and recorded back to back wins for the first time this season with a 6-4 victory.
Last League Visit From Clan
Overall Elite League Home Record Against Clan
P 38 W 19 L 19 F 124 A 122
Number Crunching
Although the Flyers won their last encounter which was at home with the Clan in the Challenge Cup this season they will be looking to end a sequence of five straight wins for the Glasgow side in the league.
Flyers have never won two consecutive home games against Glasgow but prior to rebranding from Braehead to Glasgow the Flyers had enjoyed five consecutive home wins against Clan.
Flyers last win at home against the Clan in the league was 27th March 2022 thanks to goals from Brandon Magee, Jonas Emmerdahl and Matt Carter, Glasgow have since won on their last four visits.
Gay Haden requires one more goal to tie with Mathieu Roy as Clan’s (Glasgow version) top scorer against the Flyers with 12 goals.
Janne Kivilahti is the Flyers top scorer against Glasgow with 5 goals.
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 5th v GUILDFORD FLAMES @ GUILDFORD SPECTRUM – FACE OFF 6.00pm
Recent Form Guide
The Flames come into the weekend having lost their last two matches and occupy the last spot in the league standings. Before heading home to meet the Flyers they have a tricky trip across the Irish Sea to play the Belfast Giants on Saturday night. Since last meeting the Flyers the Flames have played one more league game which was in Glasgow last weekend where they lost 6-4 in a game dominated by powerplay goals, seven in total. After losing to the Flyers the Flames returned home and beat the Coventry Blaze 5-2 in a Challenge Cup game and the next midweek, again in the Cup, they lost at home to the Cardiff Devils 5-3. They have also made three roster changes with the addition of Canadian forwards Austin Glover, who was signed but not registered in time to play against the Flyers last time, Patrick Bajkov who was playing earlier this season in Slovakia and Steven McParland who will be remembered as having played for the Glasgow Clan last season and joins having played in the German third tier so far this term. The latter two players could very well debut this weekend.
Last League Visit to Flames
Overall Elite League Away Record Against Flames
P 14 W 7 L 7 F 36 A 46
Number Crunching
The sides have shut each other out on home ice in their last two meetings, the last meeting at the Spectrum on the final day of the regular season last term was the first time Flyers had been blanked in Guildford.
Flames have a four game winning streak on home ice going against the Flyers, their best so far in the EIHL – the last Flyers win coming on 12th February 2022 when they won 5-1 with goals from Bari McKenzie, Mike McNicholas, Tommi Jokinen, Jacob Benson and Carson Stadnyk.
Flames have yet to have a player register a hat trick against the Flyers – the only active team not to do so in all EIHL competitions.
Flyers will be in search of their 900th road goal (excluding shootouts) in all EIHL competitions, requiring two to achieve the milestone.
