Braehead Clan Head Coach Ryan Finnerty was upbeat about Sunday’s Elite League loss at Fife Flyers – but was left to rue the slow start that proved costly in the end.

Clan were 2-0 down in the first period and despite getting to within a goal of Todd Dutiaume’s men, couldn’t overhaul the deficit and ended the game with a 4-2 loss.

Finnerty was hoping for a slice of luck that could have turned the game in his team’s favour, but it never came.

He said: “We had a slow start and found ourselves behind the ‘8-ball’, but after that we played pretty well and had some opportunities to tie things and get back into the game.

“Unfortunately, we just couldn’t find our way past David Brown and the empty net goal sealed it in the end.

“They came into the game on the back of what I regarded a great performance in our barn on Friday, then beating Belfast on Saturday and they play a more structured game.

“At home, they’re a tough team and that’s irrespective of who plays them. We needed something to fall our way and you have to give credit to Fife, who played well on the night.”

The result saw Flyers return to the top of the Gardiner Conference at Clan’s expense, with one other meeting to come next Sunday at Braehead Arena.

Finnerty looked at the outcome as a setback and insists he’s already focused on the two key matches to come this weekend.

He added: “There’s a lot of hockey to play and teams are flip-flopping all over the place. Although we’ve lost the Conference top spot, it makes no sense to talk about something that won’t end until a couple of months.

“We’ve dropped a couple of points back, but we still have games in hand so we’ll move on.

“It’s not a killer and we’re already looking ahead to Nottingham on Saturday then back home to play Fife again on Sunday. We may have lost the eight league game winning streak we had, but we’ll bounce back.”

(Image permission: Al Goold Photo)