Clan come from two down, take shootout win

Photo: Al Goold

Glasgow Clan scored a pair of goals in the third period to come back from two down before beating Guildford Flames in a shootout at Braehead Arena. 

A late opening-period penalty on Alex Roach fro shooting the puck out of bounds left to the first goal of the game 50 seconds before the first buzzer. Having won the offensive zone faceoff himself, Flames captain Brett Ferguson took a pass from Mike Crocock and skated in front to wrap-around on Antti Karjalainen and put the Flames ahead. 

In what became a back and forth second period, the Flames doubled their lead with a bit of fortune. Ryan Tait's throw to the net deflected into his own net off former Flames defenseman Jake Bolton to put the Flames two ahead at 34:22.

Taz Burman in the Flames net made a couple of good stops at the start of period three to keep the visitors up by a pair, but could do nothing about Clan getting themselves back to within one. Luke Lynch was found alone in the slow by Philippe Sanche and the former's shot was inch-perfect to beat the on-rushing Burman and make it a one-goal game with 13:59 to go. Karjalainen made a wonderful glove save to deny Patrick Bajkov putting the Flames back two ahead a minute later.

At the other end, a combination of Burman and the goal frame thwarted Gary Haden tying the game when he got in behind the Flames' defense. Karjalainen later made an excellent stretched, pad save at the far post to keep Clan only one behind. With 4:20 to play, Robert Lachowicz pounced on Sanche digging a loose puck out in the crease to tie the game just as Lewis Hook's minor was expiring.

Steven McParland almost stole the game for the Flames against his former team with a minute to go, but both teams took a point with the game going to overtime. Josh Roach and Haden almost won it early in OT for Clan, before the Flames went straight up the other end and had a shot come back off the bar. Sanche took a Slashing penalty with 2:!5 left in the bonus period, promoting Paul Dixon to call his timeout and draw up a play. Despite several good shooting opportunities, the Flames couldn't find a way past Karjalainen and the game needed a shotoout to separate the two teams.

Darien Craighead scored the only goal of the shootout to get Clan the extra point, though not before Tait's attempt in the final round had to be check to make sure it came off the bar and hadn't entered the net.