The Irvine Flyers were in town this weekend for the first of a two leg series in the Ayrshire Cup and they brought a big bag of hockey with them, not too mention a long bench of players. The Flyers were on the ice at Limekiln Road for their warm-up before most of the Jets even had their equipment on and looked good before the starting face-off. Ayr were without experienced forward John Kidd, captain Graham McKinlay, suspended James Clark and D-men Stevie Tap & Alan Thaine from last week's game against cross-town rival Lions.
As the puck dropped however it was a different story and the Jets outplayed the Irvine side until the Flyers forwards snuck one past Ayr goalie Bernie McCrone after six minutes of play. Jets soon equalised though with a goal from number 24, Graham Cathcart and Irvine answered straight back with another of their own, ending the period 2-1 up.
The second period was much the same with some good end-to-end ice-hockey. One more goals from the Flyers, a switch of the Ayr netminders half way through and an Andy Watt goal cut the lead to one goal. A communications error between forward George Cathcart and goalie Stephen McLauchlan increased it back to 2 again. Jets saw the game to the buzzer before the teams headed to the dressing rooms with the Flyers still in front and a promising 4-2 lead.
As the Jets started the last period on the freshly cut ice they skated hard with lots of 2-on-1 and 3-on-2 opportunities. The first line of Simpson, Morris and Watt proved too menacing for the Flyers defence and the Jets soon took control of the situation with a flurry of goals in the period including a short-handed effort from Morris. Mark Andrews & Gary Collins dominated the blue line, dazzling the opposition with tape-to-tape passes and pounding the goalie with booming shots, allowing the forwards to pick up the rebounds.
With the Jetsons bagging five goals in the third to Irvine's two, including one in the forty-eighth minute from Michael Hose to tie it at five a piece and another in the fifty-fifth minute to tie it at again from Simpson to tie it again at six each. Man of the Match, Watt fired another home in the closing minutes to take a 7-6 lead, forcing Irvine to pull their goalie leaving an empty net in favour of the extra man in the attacking zone.
As Ayr took posession of the puck and heaved it in the direction of the other end for an icing call that would bring the face-off back to their own defensive area. Jim McLauhlan lost the draw but Gary Mo stepped onto a bobbling puck and skated the length of the ice before slapping it goalwards from an awkward angle in the corner sealing the victory with only five seconds remaining on the clock. With a final score of Ayr 8 - Irvine 6, the Jets improve their Ayrshire Cup record to 2 wins, 1 loss.
