Jeff Hutchins on the bench for Fife and calling for another huge effort from the Kirkcaldy club against Manchester

Murrayfield Racers face another long trip as they bid to earn their first win in the National Ice Hockey League, North Cup.

Tony Hand’s men visit Hull Pirates on Sunday and the club’s director of hockey was pleased with the performance of his injury-hit squad at Telford Tigers last weekend despite the defeat.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh-based Jeff Hutchins has urged his success-hungry Fife Flyers squad to back up their midweek win at champions Cardiff Devils with victory over Manchester Storm.

The Kirkcaldy combine, who are second in the 11-strong Elite League, entertain Storm at The Fife Ice Arena on Saturday (7.15pm) after their confidence-boosting 5-4 overtime victory in Wales on Wednesday.

That helped Flyers erase memories of the 7-2 defeat suffered by Fife on their last visit to Cardiff.

Hutchins said Wednesday’s win was a great result and he added that the guys played really well.

The power play, he said, was clicking and Fife killed off a number of penalties so their special teams were also really working.

And, once again, goaltender Shane Owen, was in top form.

Hutchins, Fife’s assistant coach, said the result was all down to the effort of the boys.

And he argued that it is not easy to get off a bus after ten-hours and play the right game to come up with a result.

It was back to work on Friday and Hutchins said: “We’ve told the boys that Wednesday’s result means nothing if they don’t beat Manchester on Saturday.”

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