Scottish ice hockey: Braehead Clan continue to struggle at home

Braehead Clan's Jay Rosehill has been left scratching his head by the team's poor home form after a Boxing Day defeat to Belfast Giants.

The Glasgow side have won only five out of 17 at Braehead Arena in all competitions, with four out of 12 in the Elite League.

And Rosehill says he and his team-mates can't dwell on it too much as they embarked on a run of four games in five days before the New Year.

"I honestly don't know why it's not clicked for us at home," Rosehill said. "I've been playing for a long time and never known anything like it.

"I've played on teams that have only won at home and that adds up sometimes, but we're performing on the road and can't seem to bring it to our own rink.

"It doesn't make sense as our fans are fantastic and they are loud. As players, we're excited to play out there, but it's something of an anomaly right now.

"Hopefully we can change it around in the New Year and we can't feel sorry for ourselves with such a busy week ahead."

Clan opened the Christmas period in the best possible way with a victory over Fife Flyers on Friday, beating their Kirkcaldy rivals 4-3, making it five wins on the trot against them.

Bari McKenzie and Scott Aarssen's strikes were cancelled out by Brendan Brooks and Carlo Finucci before Alex Leavitt and Matt Keith restored the two-goal lead.

Matt Sisca pulled another back for Fife on the powerplay late on and despite a final surge at the end, Ryan Finnerty's side held on for the points.

However, Boxing Day was a different story as they went down 5-1 to Belfast Giants, a team chasing down league leaders Cardiff Devils for the top spot.

Giants took the lead through Colin Shields, with Aarssen levelling by the end of the first. However, Belfast took the win as Ryan Martinelli, Mark Garside, Alex Foster and Steve Saviano all scored.

Caps keep leaking at the back

It completed a run of four wins in six days for the Giants, who were visited by Edinburgh Capitals twice in the days leading up to Christmas, taking four points from the sorry Caps.

Thursday's 3-0 win, courtesy of goals from Shields (two) and Saviano was followed up by a whopping 9-6 success when they met again 24 hours later.

Taylor MacDougall got a consolation as Giants led 8-1 after two periods, but Edinburgh came back in the third to turn a seven-goal deficit into three by the end.

Two from Yevgeni Fyodorov and single strikes from Pavel Vorobyev, Jared Staal and Mike D'Orazio softened the blow of a disappointing night.

A trip to Kirkcaldy on Boxing Day for the Murrayfield men produced another huge scoreline, but Caps were on the wrong end again, thumped 9-3 by Fife Flyers.

Phil Paquet, Justin Fox and Finucci had Fife three up before Vorobyev clawed one back in the first. Further goals from Ryan Dingle and Brooks had the Flyers 5-1 up with Vorobyev scoring again.

But Todd Dutiaume's men pushed further as Dingle completed a hat-trick, including a penalty shot and another from Brooks and Fox made it nine, with Staal adding a third consolation for Edinburgh.

Stars' slump continues

Dundee Stars' recent collapse in form continued as their run was extended to nine losses in ten following three more defeats this week.

Cardiff completed the job on them in the Challenge Cup quarter final on Wednesday with a 4-2 win, making it an 8-3 aggregate success, despite goals from Vinny Scarsella and Scott Brannon.

Further lengthy trips to Nottingham Panthers and Manchester Storm either side of Christmas didn't fare much better as Marc LeFebvre's men continue to languish outside the top eight.

Friday's journey to Nottingham saw them lose 4-2 with Justin Faryna's early opener cancelled out by Panthers' Brian McGrattan before Felix-Antoine Poulin fired Stars ahead again.

Robert Farmer's double turned the game around before Alex Nikiforuk sealed victory with just under two minutes to go.

Dundee headed to Manchester on Boxing Day, but another loss made it a miserable Christmas for the Stars fans as Storm won 4-1 in Altrincham.

Darian Dzuirzynski, Mario Valery-Trabucco and two from Omar Pacha secured victory for them, despite Kevin Bruijsten nabbing a late consolation for Dundee as they ended the week in defeat.

Christmas results:

Wednesday

Challenge Cup Quarter Final 2nd Leg -

Cardiff Devils 4-2 Dundee Stars (Cardiff win 8-3 on aggregate)

Thursday

Elite League -

Belfast Giants 3-0 Edinburgh Capitals

Friday

Elite League -

Belfast Giants 9-6 Edinburgh Capitals

Braehead Clan 4-3 Fife Flyers

Nottingham Panthers 4-2 Dundee Stars

Boxing Day

Elite League -

Braehead Clan 1-5 Belfast Giants

Fife Flyers 9-3 Edinburgh Capitals

Manchester Storm 4-1 Dundee Stars