Kestrels soar past Tigers

The Dundee Tigers slumped to their first defeat of the season at the hands of the current SNL champions, Kirkcaldy Kestrels on Saturday night in Dundee.

The visitors had clearly crossed the Tay with their eyes firmly focussed on the 2 points at stake. The Kestrels outshot the hosts 14 – 4 in the opening session with an impressive defensive effort that kept the Tigers to speculative efforts from well outwith the danger areas while at the other end of the ice Mark McGill performed heroics to keep the visitors at bay. His resolve was eventually broken by Sean Cochrane who shot home with 90 seconds left with the only goal of the period.

The Tigers got the second period underway with a flurry of activity but it was the Kestrels who grabbed the vital, early goal as Robbie Hill latched on to a fine saucer pass to direct the puck over McGill’s shoulder. Just over half way through the game Conor Duncan made it 3 unanswered goals for the Kestrels with a shot from the point that sneaked past the Tigers keeper. The hosts got themselves on the board just 15 seconds after play restarted as Mark McLeod picked up his own rebound to bat home the puck and give the Tigers hope of a comeback. Those hopes were dashed however when Robin Floyd notched a powerplay marker with less than 2 minutes left to give the Kestrels a 3 goal cushion with just 1 period to play.

The short-benched Tigers would be excused for capitulating in the closing session but the hosts came out fighting. A powerplay 6 minutes in allowed the hosts to test Andrew Little in the Fife net but he was equal to the challenge. With Tigers finding their flow they looked dangerous in attack but the classy Kestrels dealt with it impeccably with Little turning away all 17 shots versus the 7 faced by Tigers McGill in a scoreless final session.

Final Score: Tigers 1 – Kestrels 4

Tigers MOM: Andy Henderson Kestrels MOM: Andrew Little

SOG: On Tigers 31 - On Kestrels 37

PIMs: Tigers 32 Kestrels 14