TJ Caig proved Fife Flyers’ hero last night after firing the Kirkcaldy club into the semi-finals of the Elite League play-offs for the second time.
The 35-year-old centre slotted home with only 22 seconds left of sudden-death overtime to end Braehead Clan’s play-off dreams.
Fife, who edged the first-leg 2-1 with two goals in the final two minutes on Saturday in Kirkcaldy, came from 1-0 down after Marcus Gotz scored after 36 minutes.
Caig opened his account after 46 minutes but Scott Pitt scored less than two minutes later to send the game into overtime before ice cool Caig claimed the winner to send Fife to Nottingham next weekend.
Flyers will face the winner of Monday night’s play-off second leg between Belfast Giants and Nottingham Panthers on Saturday at 5pm.
In the other semi-final Cardiff Devils will face Coventry Blaze after the Welsh side denied Dundee Stars on Sunday night.
The Stars had stunned their Welsh hosts 4-2 on Saturday night but Devils hit back on Sunday night at Dundee Ice Arena to win 4-1 and earn a 6-5 aggregate win.
Stars looked to be in the driving seat in last night’s game even when Tomas Kurka pulled one back for Cardiff on the power play after 10 minutes.
Former Cardiff player Doug Clarkson found the net after 33 minutes to level on the night at 1-1 but three unanswered goals, two of them in four third-period minutes, sent Stars spinning out of the tournament.
Andrew Lord scored, also on the power play, after 38 minutes and Carl Hudson made it 3-1 after 51 minutes with Stars defenceman Jason Gray in the sin bin.
Kurka’s second of the night ended Dundee’s campaign with less than five minutes left on the clock.
On Saturday, Dundee had opened the scoring from Mikael Lidhammar and Lou Dickenson made it 2-0 with a short-handed strike.
Cardiff claimed a goal back from Andrew Hotham 29 seconds later and levelled when Guillaume Doucet counted two minutes after that. But
Curtis Leinweber and Stars’ assistant player-coach Bobby Chaumont made it 4-2.
At Kirkcaldy on Saturday, Fife went behind after 19 minutes when Gotz scored on the power play..
But Ryan Dingle levelled, also on the power play, after 58 minutes 39 seconds, the goal being set up by Nico Sacchetti and Justin Fox.
And the same two players were the architects behind the game-winner as Kyle Haines lifted the roof off the stadium with his goal only 13 seconds from time.