Fife Flyers claimed two points in their hunt for a play-off place when they edged rivals Dundee Stars on Tayside last night.
It was a welcome win, as their play-off rivals Edinburgh Capitals posted a 2-1 victory over Elite League title contenders Braehead Clan, the former long-term leaders, to stay in the hunt.
Fife travelled to Tayside looking to repair the damage caused by their 4-3 penalty shots defeat by Dundee on Saturday.
They started well when Bobby Chaumont broke the deadlock after eight minutes.
Back came Stars, and Shane Lust netted 32 seconds later, but the home side’s joy did not last long as Chris Auger put the visitors ahead 15 seconds later.
John Dolan levelled, capitalising on defensive frailties, only for Chaumont to net his second on the power play with two minutes more on the clock.
Martin Cingel levelled again just over a minute later before Matt Reber swept the puck home to make it 4-3 with 28 seconds left in the period.
Ned Lukacevic increased Fife’s advantage seven minutes into the middle period with a shot from the right wing.
Lukacevic then found space and popped in number six on the power play after 42 minutes.
Dundee refused to go away, though, and Kyle Gibbons netted their fourth goal just four minutes later.
Scott Fleming steadied Fife nerves with a seventh, also on the power play, with 48 minutes and 49 seconds on the clock.
Stars’ case was not helped when Brad Plumton was thrown out on a game misconduct after losing his cool with referee Toby Craig.
Flyers capitalised by netting a fifth power-play goal, which brought about Lukacevic’s hat-trick and ended the goal blitz.
On Saturday, Jordan Fulton opened the scoring for the home side after 86 seconds, but Sean Ringrose levelled for Stars less than five minutes later.
Ringrose fired Dundee ahead three minutes into the second session on the power play, but Fife responded.
Auger levelled with a one-man advantage seven minutes later and Stephen Gunn put the home side 3-2 ahead after 13 minutes.
It took Stars until less than four minutes from time to level from Shane Lust, and the teams could not be separated even after sudden death overtime.
Ringrose, Gibbons and John Dolan all failed to score in the penalty shoot-out for Stars, but Chaumont, Lukacevic and Auger also failed to count.
In the fourth round, Ryan Grimshaw kept his cool to net the game- winner as Lukacevic failed with his attempt.