Sunday evening saw the only game of the IIHL take place. The Flyers I.H.C. faced the Dublin Rams in their last encounter of the season. The Rams have already beaten the Flyers twice this season in their previous encounters. The Rams currently sit third in the standings and will certainly make the playoffs. The Flyers have only won one game this season and that was back in November against the Wolves. However, under Simon Kitchen the squad has improved immensely.
This game got under way just after 7:15 pm. Neither team had a full bench and the Flyers found themselves in the penalty box early on with Dean Kelly going to the box for high sticking. The Flyers were successful in killing off the penalty but so where the Rams when Aaron Murphy went to the box for the same offence. However, the Rams found themselves up by two goals before the end of the period. Goals came from Brad Heraghty followed by a powerplay goal from Matt Hearn just before the break.
The second period was all about the goalkeepers as neither team was able to find the back of the net. Seanna Conway made 18 saves while Sean Gibson saved the 9 shots he faced. Not too many penalties in the period with the Flyers only being penalised once when Graeme Barrett went to the box for tripping. While the Rams only found themselves down a man twice in the period. The Flyers may rue those wasted powerplay opportunities. The score remained 2 – 0 to the Rams after forty minutes.
The third period threw up an exciting climax to a tight game. The Flyers pulled a goal back with only eight seconds gone in the period. Barry Higgins scoring with assists going to Stephen Cooper and Rich De Palma. Four minutes later and the Flyers had tied the game up with Graeme Barrett getting the equaliser. From here, the play picked up and both teams took penalties but the Rams were just following one another into the box. The Flyers even found themselves with two separate 5-on-3 opportunities. However, they wasted both of them. These successful penalty killings gave the Rams some momentum as they went forward and they got the winner with eight minutes remaining in the game. Heraghty got his second of the night off a pass from Eric Tobia. Tobia was playing on defence today! The Flyers were unable to get another equaliser and it remained 3 – 2 until the final buzzer.
Final Score: 3 – 2 (0 – 2, 0 – 0, 2 – 1)
SOG: 26 – 49 (6 – 16, 9 – 18, 11 – 15)
PIM: 8 – 58 (4 – 2, 2 – 14, 2 – 32)
Saves: Conway (46/49) – Gibson (24/26)