Fife Flyers’ new centreman only skated with team-mates in warm-up before debut

The imposing, highly experienced centreman only skated for the first time in the warm-up to the game against Coventry Blaze, but quickly found his feet and enjoyed a solid debut as cover the injured Ben Hawerchuk. The Canadian forward has been placed on the Injury Reserve (IR) list with an unspecified upper body injury for 28 days, ruling him out of December’s busy schedule.

That saw head coach Tom Coolen dig into his extensive contacts book and return to Latvia - where he was assistant coach to the national side - to tie up a deal with the 34-year old Pavlovs.

A native of Riga, Latvia, he brings a wealth of experience having iced in 281 KHL games with Dynamo Riga, 78 games in the ECHL with Colorado Eagles and, most recently, 55 Polska Hokej Liga games and 58 Slovakian Extraliga games with JKH GKS Jastrzębie, HK Dukla Michalovce and HC 19 Humenné respectively. Pavlovs has also made 154 appearances for the Latvian National team at various levels where he worked with Coolen who was assistant coach.,

The player arrived in town on Friday afternoon with just enough time to settle in before lacing up for the weekend action, icing in a third line with Jasmes Spence and Brady Poteau who swapped the blue line for the wing as Fife battled some absences on the bench.

Coolen said: “He hasn't skated much in the last few weeks, and only came in yesterday after practice,and didn't skate until warm up. I thought he settled down after the first period, and set guys up. He will be a very nice addition to our team.