Flames stay second with two-goal home win

Photo: John Uwins

Guildford Flames survived a late scare to beat Glasgow Clan 4-2 on Saturday night at the Spectrum, ensuring both sides ended the weekend with one win from two games.

Cole Ully went closest to opening the scoring when he hit the post of Jake Kupsky’s net some seven minutes into the game. Matt Alvaro, driving the net, had a decent chance for the Flames as Clan controlled the opening phases. Daniel Tedesco had a couple as half chances as the Flames grew into things, but the period would end without score.

The ever-lively Jake Jacome forced Joe Hazeldine into a turnover early in period two, fed the puck to Alvaro who found Josh Waller wide open at the far post of Landon Bow's net to put the Flames one up 60 seconds into period two.

Almost out of nothing, the Flames went two ahead – Ethan Strang’s snipe into the top corner of Bow’s net doubled the home side’s lead at 23:21.

Mitchell Heard, who had two assists on Friday in Cardiff, beat Kupsky from a tight angle to bring Clan back into things at 27:17. Clan could have been level before the end of the period but saw a puck roll just wide of Kupsky’s net to trail 2-1 through 40 minutes.

5:16 into period three, Strang was left alone in the slot and found by Lewis Hook to let another excellent shot fly past Bow and make it 3-1 to the Flames.

A late interference call on Cole Ully with 3:27 to play gave the Flames the chance to wrap the game up on the powerplay. Paul Dixon called his timeout to give his team instructions, but what wouldn’t have been on his agenda was seeing Tyson McLellan pull one back for the Clan shorthanded at 58:17. It got worse for the Flames when Mike Crocock was called for tripping just seven seconds later, however, Brett Ferguson and Lewis Hook combined for the latter to score into the empty net with 1:08 to play to steady the home side’s nerves.