Paisley Pirates player-coach Adam Walker believes he and his teammates have to stick to their game plan for the entire match to have any chance of toppling title rivals Aberdeen Lynx.
The Paisley club were cruising against Kilmarnock Thunder on Saturday having raced into a 4-1 lead at the first session break.
Ian Turley’s side took their eye off the puck in the second session though, with Thunder pulling off the same scoreline to tie the scores heading into the third session.
Pirates managed to click back into gear to emphatically win the deciding session 7-3, with Conor Duncan bagging an incredible seven goal haul himself over the course of the match.
The win sets the Paisley side up nicely for their trip to Aberdeen Lynx this weekend, knowing a win would draw the Pirates closer to top spot with a game still in hand on their title rivals.
But Walker is adamant his side need to learn to stick to their task for the entire 60 minutes after suffering severe dips in form two games running.
He told Express Sport: “I thought we played really well but we let it slip in the middle session.
“We were well in control of the game but we went away from the game plan and switched off a little bit.
“We’d come up with a strategy for Kilmarnock and we ended up reverting to our more standard style of play and it almost cost us.
“We had to dig deep because we gave them confidence and belief in that second session.
“We were massively disappointed at that and it happened in the game in Belfast too. We gave ourselves a hole to dig out of.
“We have to learn to stick to the game plan because when we do, we generally end up winning.
“Saturday against Aberdeen is now our biggest game of the season.
“We have to put in a complete performance over 60 minutes to have any chance of coming away with a win at their place.”
Pirates can take belief from the fact they are the only SNL team to beat Aberdeen Lynx this season.
And Walker can’t wait to taste the white-hot atmosphere of a sell-out crowd at the Aberdeen Linx Ice Arena with the sport having spent so long in cold storage due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Walker said: “We have dropped points already this season and we can’t really afford to drop any more.
“There are no easy games in the SNL anymore and, as we saw from the Kilmarnock game, if you aren’t 100 per cent at it things can go south pretty quickly.
“We have beaten Aberdeen already, so we can take confidence from that.
“We won 5-3 at our place but we let them off softly to be honest. The scoreline shouldn’t have been that close because we put in an excellent performance and were very comfortable.
“That shows we can be successful as long as we don’t give them anything easy on the night.
“These ultra-competitive games are the ones you play for and you want to play in an electric atmosphere.
“The SNL crowds aren’t as big as in the EIHL, but it’s almost always a sell-out at Aberdeen and it’s great for our guys to get to experience that.
“It can be a hostile atmosphere which can be distracting. You have to focus on what we’re doing.
“We’ll be well prepared for it and ready to face anything they throw our way during the game.
“If we can stick to our game plan for the entire 60 and play to our best, I’m confident we’ll come away with both points.”
Face-off on Saturday is at 7.15pm.
