A late first period goal and a couple early in the 2nd helped Flames take an insurmountable lead before continuing on to a 7-2 win at Fife Flyers in the first of a road weekend doubleheader.
Flames had the only goal of the opening frame when they converted on a late powerplay off the stick of Jack Jacome.
In the 26th minute, Daniel Tedesco made it a 2 goal lead and Ethan Strang had the visitors 3 goals to the good before the halfway mark. Shortly thereafter, Samuel Talbot made it a 4 goal spread, but an Evan MacKinnon powerplay reply for Fife at 37:06 pulled them within 3 to begin the 3rd.
Inside the back half of the final set, Marcus Tesink re-stored the 4 goal difference. An answer by Jordy Stallard less than 2 minutes later closed the gap temporarily before Ryan Tait and Brett Welychka, the last on a powerplay, completed the scoring on the Flames win.
Jake Kupsky faced 29 shots and made 27 saves while Shane Owen turned away 39 of 46.
“We are pleased to begin the trip with a win,” said Paul Dixon, “because if we are hoping for a road sweep you have to win the first one.”
“We didn’t have our Captain Brett Ferguson who is out with something that should not be very long term, and we had a few line up changes with Austin Glover back in and Sam Jones returning for the first time since December.”
“We played well as a group and hopefully we can take some confidence into Belfast which we are going to need Sundy against the league’s top team.”
