Guildford Flames vs Glasgow Clan

GAME REPORT: GUILDFORD FLAMES 5 GLASGOW CLAN 1

The Premier Sports sponsored Glasgow Clan fought hard but were left depleted in a 5-1 loss on the road to the Guildford Flames in the EIHL.

Both sides came into the game on similar terms, neither side able to claim a point in their last two outings, the Flames unable in any of their last five, and both sides forced to play shortened lines.

Rylan Schwartz and Mitchell Heard sat this one out for Glasgow while Ethan Strang and Matt Alvaro were missing for Guildford with Jamal Watson forced to swap his defensive roles for right wing tonight.

Watson came close to scoring early on despite being out of position when he swept a puck from the slot into the crease, but Sami Aittokallio was present to bat it out of the danger zone for Glasgow.

Richard Jarusek then opened the scoring for Glasgow as he immediately parked in the bumper position on the powerplay and tipped Jason Fram’s shot just 12 seconds into the man advantage.

Jack Jacome responded for the hosts shortly after though as he knocked a first time effort high into the Clan net from Joshua Waller’s cross-ice set up.

Hugo Roy nearly grabbed a go-ahead goal for Glasgow at the end of the first when he broke out one-on-none from Cade Neilson’s stretch pass, but his effort sailed over the bar as the teams went into the first break tied at one.

Guildford netminder, Justin Fazio brought the Spectrum to life early in the second period as they rose to applaud his scramble along the crease to sweep Tristin Langan’s backdoor effort off the line.

Tyler Busch then forced Aittokallio down low on a quick wrist shot on the powerplay before dragging the rebound past the Finn and putting a backhanded effort on net that was expertly denied by the Clan netminder.

Aittokallio then jolted his hand out to prevent a second goal for Jacome on the same powerplay before Busch forced a rebound over the line despite a great string of saves by the #74.

In the final minute of the second period, last season’s top goal scorer for Glasgow, Cole Ully doubled the lead for the Flames as he buried a penalty shot awarded for an infraction by Fram on a shot from Watson.

Things got worse for the Clan in the third period as Mathieu Gosselin barrelled his way through centre ice to force a fourth past Aittokallio.

Glasgow pushed for the entire period to try and muscle their way back into the game, but a shorthanded empty net goal by Josh Nixon quashed those aspirations as Guildford claimed their 17th win in 19 home games against Glasgow.