Braehead Clan Head Coach Ryan Finnerty has confirmed netminder Gary Russell will start today’s Elite League game at Fife Flyers.

Following two highly impressive performances against Belfast Giants and Dundee Stars, Finnerty has opted to go with Russell (above) rather than the recently signed Travis Fullerton.

Finnerty commented: “Gary has come in and done a very good job for us over the past two games – he is the form netminder so it was an easy decision.

“Travis flew in on Thursday morning ready for the game against Dundee, however after the Belfast game we decided to continue with Gary and he came up with the goods once again.

“When you’ve got a hot netminder you’ve got to continue to roll with him. There is no pressure on him or the team, we’ve just got to go out and continue what we’ve been doing recently.”

Finnerty was a happy man after his team signed off 2015 with a big Gardiner Conference overtime win, having previously lost eight out of nine when the game went beyond the regulation 60 minutes.

He added: “Under the circumstances we’ve been in, with players injured and travel, it felt good to finally win in overtime.

“I felt we controlled a large portion of the game, most of the second half where I thought we were the stronger team.

“But Dundee are a team that can counter on you really fast and are dangerous, so this was a good win for us.

“I like where we are and I like our position. I also like our group right now and we’re a team that will grind out results rather than win 7-2 or scores like that.

“We’re going into Fife in a building where we’ve done okay, so we want to go after them now and really challenge them in their own barn.

“It’s always a tough game there, especially on a Saturday night then we come back to play Cardiff, the league leaders, on Sunday.

“They’ll be looking for retribution after we stole points from there just before Christmas, so there’s no easy games from here on in.”

(Image permission: Carol Ann Jardine)