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 On Sunday night the Sharks were again in Northern League action
when they travelled to Kirkcaldy to take on the Fife Flyers and
had marginally the better of territorial possession in the
opening stages. Indeed the Sharks believed they had scored as
the goal judges light came on and the referee, Toby Craig,
seemed to indicate a goal but after a discussion with the goal
judge the score was cancelled. Seconds later John Ballentyne was
harshly penalised for slashing and on the resultant powerplay
Fife pressed for the opening goal. But the Solway penalty kill
was looking strong until Chris Wands picked up a Sharks
clearance close to his own blueline. He immediately sent Gunn
free up the right wing and his pile-driver from ten yards out
looked to be covered by Dewar Anderson but the power of the shot
allowed the puck to squirm out of his grasp and into the Solway
net. The visitors immediately set about repairing the damage and
most of the remainder of the opening period was played around
centre-ice with clear shots on goal few and far between for each
side. With just under two minutes left in the period Solway had
their first real goal chance as a pass from defence sent Anthony
Payne clear through the middle but Marr in the Fife goal had
time to set himself and cover his angles well. The Flyers
immediately broke dangerously up the right through Dutiaume but
he lost control on the blueline as he looked for support.
Seconds from the hooter Kevin Conway had a clear shot on goal
but Wands was alert to the danger and bravely charged down the
Sharks forwards effort.
Fife came out for the second at full speed and caught the Sharks
cold as Gunn finished off a fine move involving Dutiaume and
Muir and just thirty seconds later the same player completed his
hat-trick after he was set up Steven King. Things could have got
even worse for Solway as Kevin Conway was penalised for hooking,
but this time the Sharks penalty-kill stood firm for the entire
two minutes although McAlpine made hearts miss a beat as he
smashed a shot into Andersons’ left hand pipe. As the Sharks
came back to full strength Fraser Goldie tried his luck from
centre-ice and his slapshot had enough power in it to knock
Derek King’s stick from his hand as the veteran Fife defenceman
attempted to block the shot. The Sharks were attacking in the
twenty-seventh minute when Derek King clearly appeared to hook
Shaun Kippin but the referee chose to ignore the incident and
the Fife defender picked up possession inside his own blueline.
As he looked up, he spotted Flemming coming onto to the ice
totally unmarked on a fly line change. His pass was collected by
the returning Fifer hard on the left-hand boards at the Sharks
blueline and, with time to spare, he casually drifted inside
before firing low past Anderson in the Sharks goal. Another
powerplay in the twenty-ninth minute saw Fife bombard the Sharks
goal and eventually the goal judges’ red light went on and Lewis
Glasgow was awarded the goal although the Solway players were
adamant that the puck was kicked in by the young Fife forward.
Solway took this opportunity to replace Anderson with Scott
McMeeken and for the remainder of the period the Sharks strove
to steady the ship and. Allowing for the fact that there were no
further goals they managed to do so, although Fife were in total
control of the match by this stage.
 The joke around the Sharks supporters at the second intermission
was that Ladbrook’s were offering 500-1 on Solway coming back to
win the match but refused to give odds on them beating a referee
who had taken a dislike to them. Two minutes into the final
session Fife player-coach, Todd Dutiaume, took possession behind
the Sharks net before slipping a pass out to Beattie who spun
sharply and fired a low back-hand shot below McMeekens’ body to
put the Flyers ahead by six. The Fife fans were in seventh
heaven in the fifty-second minute when Jamie Wilson scored the
goal of the night. Steven King picked up possession at
centre-ice and passed square to Wilson who then went on a
mesmerising skate in and out between three Sharks defencemen
before picking his spot low to McMeekens’ left. Four minutes
from the end a period of concerted Sharks pressure produced a
consolation goal for the visiting fans to celebrate. An Anthony
Payne shot was beaten away by Marr and the rebound fell to John
Downes who tried going behind the net for a wrap-around shot.
The save then rebounded to Kevin Conway whose shot was
redirected over Marr into the roof of the net by Alan Crane.
With just nine seconds left there was still time for the referee
to call one final penalty on the Sharks as John Downes was given
two minutes for high sticks. As he tussled on the boards with a
Fife forward both players sticks were clearly in the air as they
fought for possession.
Fife were once more well deserved winners on the night and the
score-line didn’t really flatter them in any way at all,
although the manner of how it came about rankled with an element
of the support. Man of the match for Solway was Anthony Payne
while three-goal Steven Gunn received the award for the home
side.
The views and statistics in
this report are individual and do not necessarily reflect
the opinions of the Solway Sharks.
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