Elite League

Around the Rinks: Belfast Giants conquer Fife Flyers as Milan Lucic debuts

By Luke James

Posted on 27th December 2025

Mike Lee, Belfast Giants (Image: William Cherry)

Santa Claus delivered on Christmas Day. And the Elite League doubled down on Boxing Day.

From Milan Lucic’s highly-anticipated Fife Flyers debut to a record-setting Utilita Arena showdown between the Sheffield Steelers and Nottingham Panthers, Friday [26 December] provided entertainment in bucketloads.

Welcome to Around the Rinks: our daily summary of every team’s post-game media remarks.

Around the Rinks: Friday, 26 December

Cardiff Devils 5-4 Coventry Blaze

Ben Davies, Cardiff Devils (Image: James Assinder)

Paul Thompson, Cardiff Devils:

I think they’re trying to give me a heart attack. I thought we were pretty much in control and then we had the incident with [Riley Bradnt] and I think the officials got the call right. Maybe the interference on [Mark Richardson] that wasn’t called [was the reason] why he went in to stick up for his linemate.

But I don’t want to talk about that. I want to talk about the character we showed to come back from 4-2 to win. I challenged the team to be better on the powerplay and we looked really sharp. And then [Joey] Martin, the Cardiff GOAT, got the game-winner.

I’m overjoyed. Boxing Day games, you can never write them. But it’s two points.

Kevin Moore, Coventry Blae:

I loved our guys’ competitiveness and grit. I’ve been talking a lot about invisible stats and stepping up to make the right play, and I thought we did that tonight. We were chasing it a bit with a short line-up, so it’s frustrating that we took the lead and lost it. But I can’t fault our effort and things will break our way if we keep it up.

Sheffield Steelers 4-3 Nottingham Panthers (Overtime)

Robert Dowd, Sheffield Steelers (Image: Dean Woolley)

Ben Davies, Cardiff Devils (Image: James Assinder)

Aaron Fox, Sheffield Steelers:

I’m happy for the two points. We were a little flat in the first period, but we got into it more in the second. I thought we played well through the middle portion of the game and bent, but didn’t break, under pressure in the third.

I thought [Drew] Doughty was a man on a mission tonight: he was the best player on the ice and willed us to win. [Matt Greenfield] made some great saves down the stretch and we’ll take the two points.

It’s never an easy one over Christmas because the work week is a little different, so we’re happy to get the win done.

Danny Stewart, Nottingham Panthers:

Again, another close game between these teams. It was pretty even in the first period, but they had us on our heels for 15 minutes in the second. [Kevin Carr] made a couple of big saves and we got going again after that.

We scored the go-ahead-goal in the third period, but we didn’t manage the puck well enough. We were caught on a turnover, the momentum started to shift, and this building got going. I thought we played well after their third goal went in, but we got crossed up a little bit in overtime, and it was a nice play for them to win it.

Glasgow Clan 3-1 Dundee Stars

Joe Hazeldine, Glasgow Clan (Image: Al Goold)

Mike Sirant, Glasgow Clan:

We’re feeling great. It’s important to win these games at home and to keep this momentum going. We’re off to a good start in the second half [of the season] and played well tonight: we played a good possession game and controlled a lot of the game. We created a lot of chances, but weren’t quite connected in front of the net.

At times, we were guilty of passing the puck rather than shooting, but it was an important home win for us.

Marc LeFebvre, Dundee Stars:

I thought we played hard and competed tonight. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t win: the guys put in the effort and I’m never going to complain about that. We gave ourselves the chance to win.

There are a lot of little things we still need to work on, but everyone stepped up tonight, with the bodies that we had available.

The nice thing is that we get them again in our building. We look forward to the challenge and we’ll be ready to go.

Manchester Storm 3-2 Guildford Flames

Harrison Caines, Manchester Storm (Image: Mark Ferriss)

Cam Critchlow, Manchester Storm:

It was good to secure the two points in the end. We got off to a tough start and Guildford came ready to play: they outskated us and were winning most of the races.

We regrouped and I really liked our second period: we were coming in waves and playing hard. We’re playing with some snarl and bite to our game. Evan [Wenninger] was excellent between the pipes and the penalty kill was great. I really like the way we’re playing right now.

Paul Dixon, Guildford Flames:

It was a really good first period: we started on time and put ourselves in a really good position. We obviously thought that we’d done what we needed to do, but there were another two periods to play.

Credit to Manchester, they came out with a purpose in the second period and capitalised on the two mistakes that we made. From there, we were chasing the game.

I thought we were very good in the third period, but you can’t take time off, and that [loss] is the outcome tonight. We had some good looks on the powerplay, but we’ve got to be more clinical. It didn’t click. I can’t be too critical overall because both units have been doing well, it just wasn’t to be tonight.

[Evan] Wenninger had a great third period, shut the door, and allowed them to win.

Belfast Giants 9-0 Fife Flyers

Jake Gaudet, Belfast Giants (Image: William Cherry)

Adam Keefe, Belfast Giants:

I thought we were great defensively. I’ll watch it back and I’m sure that I’ll disagree with myself a few times, but we still gave up too much. Jackson [Whistle] was very good.

It’s hard to argue with that game: it was one of those ugly ones that we were on the right side of. There’s no doubt that they’ll be a better hockey team on Sunday and we need to be prepared for that.

Coming out of the Christmas break with the schedule, you never really know what to expect, so I’m not going to complain about that performance. The guys were very good under the circumstances.

Jamie Russell, Fife Flyers:

I liked our first period, I thought we were good. In the second period, our defensive zone coverage was horrible: there was a lot of puck watching and we were sloppy. Belfast’s a really good team in transition and they punish you if you give them chances. We gave up too many odd-man rushes and were very sloppy defensively.

We’ve got to give our goalie a chance to be successful and play better defence in front of him. I thought we generated some decent chances, but our finishing wasn’t very good.

I thought Milan [Lucic] had a really good game, he’s strong on the puck, and he had two or three really great chances. For [Scott] Booth and Milan, they’re both going to take a little bit of time. They haven’t played a game in a while.

You can be in great shape and do all the things you need to off the ice, but it’s going to take some time to come back once you’re into games and one-on-one battles.