Fife Flyers’ dreams of making the semi-final of the Challenge Cup for the first time were ended on Wednesday night.
The Scots pushed Sheffield Steelers all the way but were edged out 7-6 on aggregate after winning game 4-3 on the night in a tense tussle in South Yorkshire.
Fife coach Todd Dutiaume can be proud of the effort from his side but the damage was done earlier this month when they lost the first leg 4-2 at the Fife Ice Arena.
Last night, new signing Nico Sacchetti stunned home fans with the opener after six minutes, but Jason Hewitt levelled six minutes later.
Ryan Dingle put Fife ahead for the second time only 43 seconds into the second session.
Conny Stromberg levelled after 30 minutes but Fife went ahead again when Nicholas Rioux netted 32 seconds later.
Back came Sheffield and Levi Nelson levelled at 3-3 with less than two minutes left of the middle session.
Fife were not to be denied and Kyle Haines edged them in front again only 18 seconds into the final session but his goal was not quite enough to take Dutiaume’s bravehearts through.
Braehead Clan recovered from a 4-0 deficit in their Challenge Cup quarter-final first-leg to head back to Glasgow only 5-4 down.
Results: Challenge Cup, quarter-final, second-leg: Sheffield Steelers 3 Fife Flyers 4 (agg 7-6).
Challenge Cup, quarter-final, first-legs: Manchester Storm 2 Belfast Giants 5, Nottingham Panthers 5 Braehead Clan 4.
Meanwhile, Canadian netminder Trevor Koenig is due to fly into Scotland today to take over from Dundee Stars netminder Vlastimil Lakosil.
The stopper left the Scots for personal reasons and Koenig plans to train with Stars ahead of their crunch clash at Braehead Clan on Saturday.
Koenig, 41, has been training in Denmark and has played in nine leagues for 16 teams, including Newcastle Vipers and Coventry Blaze.