Flyers beat Panthers in crazy game

Photo: Flyers Images

Fife Flyers came from behind, lost leads, and eventually came out of top of a 15-goal thriller on Saturday night in Kirkcaldy against Nottingham Panthers.

Simon Despres opened the scoring with 130 seconds played with a well-taken wrist shot from the slot, while Hugo Roy was left all alone to double that lead at 4:20. Jonas Emmerdahl shot through a screen to get the Flyers back into the game with 6:03 gone, while the hosts were then level thanks to Teemu Pulkkinen with 2:15 left in the period. That lead didn't hold, however, as Mike Caruso scored from the point on a delayed penalty to put the Panthers one up at the break.

Jake Ryczek extended that lead to 4-2 but two goals in seven minutes brought the Flyers lever - Troy Lajeunesse at 331:03 and then Max Humitz's slapshot with 1:59 left in the period. The Pantehrs went back ahead at 39:11, however - Alexander Lunsjo's shot was initially waived off but the officials went back to check the video some 30 seconds later and saw the puck had hit the back bar, and gave the goal.

With the Panthers leading 5-4 head into int period three, there was a goal rush in the opening ten minutes. Myles McGurty put them 6-4 ahead 67 seconds into the period, only for Pulkkinen to hit back 45 seconds later. 

Two goals in 49 seconds then flipped the game. Max Humitz banked one in off Mike Robinson from below the goal line to tie things at six each, before Lajeunesse fired a one-timer into the net at 48:37 to put the Flyers into their first lead of the night. This time it was the Panthers who hit back thanks to Logan Neilson's first professional goal at 50:11, but Johan Eriksson had the Flyers back in front as he got goal side of Ryczek in front to tap home off Lucas Chiodo's pass. Lajeunesse completed his hat trick with 1:46 to play to settle the scoring.