Flames stay on cusp of top three

Photo: John Uwins

Guildford Flames kept themselves within three points of the top three thanks to a 7-1 victory over Fife Flyers at the Spectrum.

"It’s easy to settle in when you have a bunch of good team mates and line mates, finding chemistry has been very good so far." said Ethan Strang, who was one of seven different scorers for the Flames and is in his first season with the Flames. "We've played a lot of games recently, we definitely need some time to recover and we're grateful it's going to be a quiet week. But we still have to stick to our same routines and be ready to go next weekend."

The Flyers, who narrowly lost to Coventry Blaze 24 hours earlier, came out fast and were deservedly ahead inside four minutes. A loose play in the neutral zone saw the Flyers turn the puck over see Ryan Foss feed Charles-Antoine Paiment for the opening goal at 3:13.

The Flames levelled three minutes later through a Travis Brown blue-line effort that founds its way in through a crowd in front. Janis Voris pulled off a huge glove save to deny Josh Waller quickly after the Flames had tied it, but by 12:07 the home side were ahead: thanks to Brett Welychka firing home a rebound from a Charlie Dodero shot.

Strang did well to win the puck in the offensive zone which led to Ryan Tait sniping past Voris at 15:56 to put the Flams in control.

The Flyers could have been back in it but saw a goal waived off after video review as the puck hadn't crossed the goal line and was wedged in behind Eamon McAdam. From there is was mostly one-way traffic. Josh Waller made it 4-1 in close at 26:59, followed by Lewis Hook beating Voris low glove-side at 37:34.

Daniel Catenacci made it 6-1 with 62 seconds in the middle period off a loose puck at the top of the crease. The Flyers thought they'd scored a second 5:40 into period three, but the Flames successfully challenged for goalie interference and the goal was chalked off. Strang ended the scoring at 49:04 with the Flames' seventh of the night.