Flying Visit
In their third match of the year, the Jets welcomed the Irvine Flyers to town. Irvine strung together a few good passes to Phil Connor who put one past Jets goalie Stephen McLauchlan at 4.06 in the opening period. The deficit was short lived however as the Jets rallied back with some crisp passing of their own from John Kidd & Michael Hose to set-up Gary Morris for the game tying goal. The trio struck again four minutes later this time with Kidd scoring past the Irvine net minder for the go-ahead goal. The Jets capitalised once more with five minutes to go in the period, this time with Stevie Fawcett setting up Kevin Simpson for the finish. With the score at 3-1 the home side looked confident going into the break.
With confidence on their side, Ayr came out gunning as the second period got under way. At just thirty-three seconds elapsed on the clock, Jets veteran Jim McLauchlan & GB internationalist Ian Devlin were able to capitalize expanding the lead to three. The home side continued the onslaught four minutes later when rookie Sean McPhail & George Cathcart found Ryan Rodger for the fifth goal. Devlin seemed to be on fire as he launched a shot from the blue-line straight past the Irvine goalie for his second of the period and a 6-1 lead.
Ayr took 8 minutes of penalties during the game and with Kidd in the box for a delay of game call; Irvine seized the opportunity to capitalise at 35.53 with Connor scoring again. However, Big John rectified his error by stepping back on the ice on his next shift for an unassisted effort with only ten seconds left in the second period, leaving the score at 7-2 before the interval.
The final period would prove to be a different breed from the preceding two with fresh goalies, not quite so many goals and a few more penalties including Simpson for hooking & Gary Collins for an interference decision. In between those two infractions the visiting side managed to narrow the lead with a goal from A. Logan and then another from M. Alexander at 56.56 bringing the score to 7-4 in the closing minutes. The Jets weren't quite done though in the final minute when Rodger and Simpson were able to send it to G. Cathcart who hit the mark to put the final nail in the Flyers' coffin. Finishing score: Ayr Jets 8 - Irvine Flyers 4
MOM: Stephen McLauchlan
