Owen Reynolds is expecting a “tighter affair” when the Aberdeen Lynx return to action tomorrow.
The Granite City side had a free weekend after cruising to a 6-0 victory over Belfast Giants, and this weekend welcome Dundee Tigers to the Linx Ice Arena in the Scottish National League (SNL).
Reynolds said: “I’m sure it will be a much tighter affair.
“There’s really not much between ourselves and Tigers and they’ll fancy their chances after taking us to overtime and penalty shots when we met in Dundee last month.
“They’ve had some good results so far this season including wins against Dundee Comets and Kirkcaldy Kestrels so they’re definitely a team on the ascendancy. We’ve got some tough fixtures in the run-up to Christmas.”
Those tough fixtures Reynolds refers to include meetings with Kirkcaldy Kestrels, Murrayfield Racers and Dundee Comets.
Sitting second in the table at the moment, the Lynx will want to hold their position behind runaway SNL leaders Solway Sharks.
Despite it being early in the season, the Lynx have already played the Tigers three times – twice in the Stuart Robertson Cup and once in the league, winning on each occasion.
It’s a familiarity they didn’t share with Belfast two weekends ago.
Reynolds said: “Although we didn’t fully know what to expect from Belfast Giants, we knew there were four points up for stake with no away fixture so getting the win was paramount.
“There was very little flow to the game with lots of minor penalties disrupting our rhythm.
“At only 1-0 up following the first period we had to try to raise our game after not taking advantage of several good scoring opportunities.
“We continued to dominate in the second period and, although we were being made to work hard for our goals, we found ourselves 4-0 up going into the third.
“At this point it was just a case of closing the game out, trying to get a few more goals and not conceding.
“Craig Chalmers made a string of crucial saves to cement his shut-out and Iain Malcolm wrapped up his hat-trick late in the period.
“But realistically we still had two or three gears in us and never really played at full tilt.
“A lot of that was down to the stop-start nature of the game.
“We probably should have scored a few more goals, but we can’t complain about a 6-0 win.”