REPORT: Fife Flyers 6 Glasgow Clan 7 (After overtime)

Photos by Derek Young

Philippe Sanche’s sensational overtime winner saw Aspray Glasgow West sponsored Glasgow Clan complete an incredible comeback to win 7-6 at Fife Ice Arena.

It concluded a remarkable double header weekend between the two teams after they shared 26 goals over the two games, with Clan avenging their loss at home to Fife on Friday by the same score.

For the second time this season, Glasgow got themselves back from a three-goal deficit to claim what seemed an unlikely win after being 6-3 down after two periods.

Darien Craighead put Jordan Cownie through on Shane Owen in the Fife goal and he finished low to put Clan in front, as the visitors drew first blood in this enthralling game.

Fife weren’t behind for long as Karjalainen made an initial save from Johan Eriksson before Temmu Pulkinnen reacted first to successfully deal with the rebound.

Troy Lajeunesse then put Fife in front after being set up by Vitalijs Pavlovs to finish a good, flowing move for the home side.

Pavlovs and Lajeunesse swapped round as Flyers went 3-1 ahead as the latter set up the former and the Latvian centreman tapped the puck into the net to open a two-goal lead.

Karjalainen made a huge save shortly after when he denied Pulkinnen from point blank range after the puck had come into the danger area off the boards.

It was something of a turning point as Mike Pelech bundled into the net as Clan put some pressure on Owen’s net to bring them back to within one.

Then Sanche equalised for Glasgow as Gary Haden brought the puck out from behind Fife’s goal and squared it for Clan’s #10, who swept it home.

The momentum was soon killed off as Fife responded straight away, with Pulkinnen getting his second of the night, holding of Jake Bolton to place it past Karjalainen.

Then Eriksson’s diagonal pass was met by Chiodo in the centre, who got his stick on it first to guide it in for Flyers’ fifth goal of the night.

This was followed by a clever finish by Collin Shirley in the final minutes of the second period, giving Glasgow quite the task going into the third.

They got one back as Pelech backhanded a chance from close range into the net to reduce the arrears to two, while on a five-on-three powerplay.

Clan got it back to 6-5 with eight minutes to go as Sanche’s shot was saved, with Charlie Combs sending the puck into the gaping net as things began to get interesting in the final stages.

Then the game was squared with four minutes to go as Pelech completed his hat-trick, getting a tip on a Sanche shot to make it 6-6 and the first treble from a Clan player since Gary Haden did it in January 2023 against the same team in the same building.

Sanche popped up with the game winner to take the extra point for Jason Morgan’s men in the extra period as Glasgow completed their comeback and sealed a dramatic victory.