Dundee Tigers claimed an excellent 8-3 road win at a sold out Aberdeen Lynx, but the league leaders are still very much in the driving seat as the SNL rung in the New Year.

While an excellent win for Richy Phillips’ side, Lynx remain ahead on goal difference and still have three games in hand over their Tayside title rivals.

For Jordan Leyden’s men, it may be a setback, but they remain the team to overcome and may just chalk this one down to one of those days.

The Tigers set the tone with two quick goals early in the first as John Gordon and Rio Page each found the net, with Gary Kelly scoring one up the other end in response for Aberdeen.

Dundee managed to stretch their legs in the second as four unanswered goals – courtesy of Jack Henderson, Paul Guilcher, Page for a brace and Craig Findlay on the powerplay – made their lead an unassailable one.

Gordon’s second early in the third made it 7-1 and despite two markers, one each from Toby Reynolds and Kyle Ferguson to reduce the gap, Ross McIntosh rounded things off with Tigers’ eighth and the points well and truly in the bag.

This weekend’s round of fixtures presented a quirk of fate where first played second, third took on fourth, fifth and sixth played each other and the bottom two also locked horns.

So, it was at Murrayfield where it was more fourth taking on third than vice versa, with Paisley Pirates visiting Edinburgh Capitals for the first time this season.

The game required penalty shots to settle things, with Pirates edging the contest 5-4 in the end and nudging themselves a point in front in the standings to keep them third.

Ryan Parkin opened the scoring after just 14 seconds, with Mikey Dobson adding a second later in the opening period.

The Caps hit back to level through Aiden Robertson and Chad Smith before Fraser Kerr restored a slender lead for Paisley.

Garry Simpson made it 4-2 early in the third, but again, Edinburgh dug in and when Ross Dalgleish and Joel Gautschi each found the net, the extra time was needed.

In the end, it came down to penalty shots where Marty Simpson came up trumps, to the delight of the travelling Pirates fans.

The game between fifth and sixth happened on Sunday as Dundee Comets and Kirkcaldy Kestrels met up at Dundee Ice Arena with four points at stake.

It was another disappointing night for the champions, who went down 4-1 to the Comets, leaving them trailing by four points from the top half of the table.

John Dolan opened the scoring for the home side, with Lewis Neave adding a second before Rolands Dietlavs pulled one back for Kestrels on the powerplay.

Darren Donaldson restored Comets’ two-goal advantage and they never looked back, with Dolan bookending the result with a third period marker to confirm the four points.

In Ayrshire, the battle at the bottom saw Kilmarnock Thunder edge an entertaining game 6-5 against local rivals North Ayrshire Wild to open the gap up between them by nine points.

Wild held a 4-2 lead as the game entered the final stages of the second period when Thunder started to regain a foothold.

Andy Barr’s equaliser early in the third seemed to take momentum away from Domenico De Simone’s side even though Luca De Simone restored something of a lead to make it 5-4.

There was a twist in the tale as two shorthanded goals – one each from Innes Gallacher and Torran Anderson, with the game winner, saw Kilmarnock turn it around to claim the points.

WEEKEND RESULTS

Saturday

Aberdeen Lynx 3 Dundee Tigers 8

Edinburgh Capitals 4 Paisley Pirates 5 (PS)

Kilmarnock Thunder 6 North Ayrshire Wild 5

Sunday

Dundee Comets 4 Kirkcaldy Kestels 1