Paul Dixon and the Guildford Flames are already spiralling.
The Surrey-based outfit fell to their fifth defeat in six games to start the season on Saturday [27 September], beaten 6-5 on the road by the Nottingham Panthers.
Speaking after the final buzzer, Dixon fumed at his squad’s inconsistency and rued the catalogue of mistakes that saw them enter the first intermission down four-nothing.
“It’s tough right now because we are at rock bottom and we’ve just got to make sure that we iron out our mistakes,” he explained.
Elsewhere, it was a night to remember for the Fife Flyers, who secured their second win of the season, and Mat Robson, who produced a stunning, 40-save performance to lead the Coventry Blaze to victory over the Sheffield Steelers.
Welcome to Around the Rinks: our daily summary of every team’s post-game media remarks.
Around the Rinks: Saturday, 28 September 2025
Sheffield Steelers 0-2 Coventry Blaze (Challenge Cup)
William Boysen, Coventry Blaze (Image: Scott Wiggins)
Sheffield huffed and puffed but couldn’t blow the house down against Coventry.
Robson stood on his head once again, securing his fourth win in three starts, and left Aaron Fox wondering what might have been on a frustrating evening in Yorkshire.
Kim Tallberg and Archie Hazeldine scored for the Blaze, with Matthew Gleason, Sam Ruffin, Alessio Luciani, and Jack Hopkins registering assists.
Aaron Fox, Sheffield Steelers:
Yeah, that’s a tough one. I felt like we played some pretty good hockey for the majority of the game [and] when you look at the analytics, we out-chanced them 30-6 and out-shot them 44-19. We turned two pucks over at our offensive blueline, one off a broken stick and one off a play we could’ve gone north with but decided to go south, and both ended up in the back of our net.
They defended hard, packed the slot, and made it difficult tonight. Their goalie stood on his head. It wasn’t for a lack of chances or effort tonight, it was just one of those nights where we lacked a little bit of end product and maybe started gripping the stick a little too tight when it wasn’t going in. We’ll watch it back and it’ll look a lot better than it felt at times through that game. It was one of those nights were we ran into a hot goaltender and hit a post: we just couldn’t find a way.
Kevin Moore, Coventry Blaze:
Yeah, it was a good one. I thought our guys were pulling the rope in the same direction and our goalie was really good. Really timely defensive plays were helpful as we were being out-shot in the third period and we dealt with that adversity well. They’re just a gritty, hard-working bunch and they know that we just put our feet down and play hard no matter what.
Manchester Storm 1-2 Cardiff Devils (Challenge Cup)
Nolan Yaremko, Cardiff Devils (Image: Mark Ferris)
Ill-discipline cost the Manchester Storm… again.
The Storm accused a stunning 53 penalty minutes in Saturday’s one-goal loss to the Cardiff Devils — a contest so brutal that even Paul Thompson felt that the physicality had gotten out of hand.
Connor Caponi scored Cardiff’s short-handed opener in the third minute, before Kaleb Ergang and Kohen Olischefski exchanged lamp-lighters to settle the 2-1 score.
Cam Critchlow, Manchester Storm:
I didn’t like our start: we weren’t sharp mentally and we weren’t ready physically. We got mixed up there, [Bradley] Jenion gets involved with [Riley] Brandt and that got everyone going, which was good to see, but we gave up too many penalties at the end of the day. It’s just unacceptable at this point and something needs to change.
Paul Thompson:
Both teams like to play a physical style and it started very much that way. I think it went over the top a little bit and it was good to see the referees eventually get some control back because we don’t want guys in the hospital because of late hits and slew footing. Manchester are a good team, they play hard, but we stood up to them every step of the way and got four points on the weekend, which I’m delighted about.
Fife Flyers 5-1 Dundee Stars (Challenge Cup)
Shane Owen frustrated the Stars, making 32 saves to secure Fife’s second win of the campaign.
It was another feisty affair between the Scottish rivals, with Mason Alderson and Matt Berry exchanging blows in the second period.
Dundee head coach Marc LeFebvre lamented his players’s lack of application in his post-game comments: ouch.
Mike Courts, Fife Flyers (AC):
Coming into our own barn, we wanted to compete, hit hard, and play hard — and I think we did that. Fife has a massive hockey culture and it’s great to see the crowds back in the barn. They were very loud at the end when the fourth went in.
Marc LeFebvre, Dundee Stars:
There was very little urgency to our game tonight. I thought we were very perimeter when we had puck possession and we lost wall battles all night, especially on those first two goals. In the second period, we had a lot of the puck, but we were very perimeter and didn’t have anyone around the net front. Last weekend, we scored ten goals because we got to the net — but Fife did a very good job of keeping us to the outside and we just didn’t want to go to the dirty areas or work for it tonight.
Nottingham Panthers 6-5 Guildford Flames (Challenge Cup)
The Panthers and Flames certainly provided entertainment value — but neither team should take confidence from their performance.
Dixon was rightly furious at Guildford’s miserable start, but Nottingham should also be embarrassed by almost blowing a 4-0 lead.
Danny Stewart left assistant coach Linton Grant to speak to the media post-game, which is telling in itself.
Linton Grant, Nottingham Panthers (AC):
Obviously, it’s a good win for us. In the first period, we played how we wanted to and our habits from Wednesday carried over. They came out with a little bit of jump in the second period and we maybe weren’t ready for that. However, we righted the ship and settled into it, got a goal back, and felt a little bit more secure heading into the third. Penalty trouble caught up to us in the third period and we had to stand strong in those final five minutes. At the end of the day, we just have to be happy that we came away with the two points.
Paul Dixon, Guildford Flames:
I thought the first ten minutes of the first period were okay: we were looking for a bounce back from the midweek game and it was important that we got off to a good start. But, halfway through the first, we made mistake after mistake and we were suddenly four goals down. Again, the pushback was good in the second and third period — but it’s still not good enough. I talk about the game being a 60-minute contest and we need to be ready to battle every single shift. We can’t only decide to start playing once we’re in a hole — and that’s where we are right now. We can’t just keep using the excuse that we have players out of the line-up: we still have enough players in the team who can make the difference.
It’s tough right now because we are at rock bottom and we’ve just got to make sure that we get to work and iron out our mistakes. We’re not being beaten by world-beating goals every time, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot by being on the wrong side of the play and [not] having the will to compete in the defensive zone. It’s so frustrating because we’ve been good in parts of games, I know it’s there, we’ve just got to put it together for the whole game.
Belfast Giants 3-1 Glasgow Clan (Challenge Cup)
Scott Conway, Marcus Eriksson, and David Goodwin scored the goals to lead the Belfast Giants to victory over the Glasgow Clan.
Tristin Langan opened the scoring for Glasgow, but it wasn’t to be for Corey Neilson’s side in Belfast.
Adam Keefe, Belfast Giants:
I thought it was a good game of hockey. The first period was very even, going back and forth, and it wasn’t really our style. But that happens when you’re playing against a strong team. I thought we improved in the second period: we have more zone time, created more chances, and were finally rewarded. Marcus [Eriksson] scored a big powerplay goal to give us the lead and our third period was good, with two big penalty kills to set us up for the rest of the game.
Corey Neilson, Glasgow Clan:
I thought it was a good hockey game. Belfast are a very good team, as we expected, and I thought we were just okay tonight. I thought everyone was decent, but nobody really had a great game. I think we can be better, but it was a long day with the roster and travel. However, we’re professionals and we’re supposed to come in here and do a job. Belfast were very good and they were the better team tonight.
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