RYAN FINNERTY’S words in the hysteria of regaining the Gardiner Conference title already look like coming back to haunt him.

With the section already sealed, it means Clan’s place as either second or third seed for the play-offs is already secured, meaning the Glasgow side’s final league placing is all about pride rather than points.

Ahead of the weekend, nine games still stood between Braehead and the first leg of a play-off quarter-final and Finnerty was keen to guard against a slip in standard following five wins on the spin.

However, that momentum has already started to show signs of ebbing away.

On Saturday night in Nottingham, the Panthers inflicted a tight 5-4 defeat on the Braehead Arena side before a bruising 4-1 reverse was dished out by the Dundee Stars on Tayside.

In the first game, Braehead came back from two goals down to tie the match with strikes from Stefan Della Rovere and Matt Beca but the hosts soon rocketed ahead into a 5-2 lead.

Scott Pitt and Mike Hammond got counters late on as Nottingham held on.

While there was encouragement to be had from that plucky performance, it was a different story on Saturday night as Clan travelled to Dundee.

Cale Tanaka was first to find the net when his effort found its way past Gary Russell in the Braehead goal.

The Stars doubled their advantage early in the second when Vinny Scarsella sent a shot into the roof of the net.

Cody Carlson got Braehead back into the game with a finish in the second before Alex Leavitt was ejected from the game for a charge on home captain Joey Sides.

Scarsella picked up his second of the game during the third period to reopen the two goal lead, but Clan then saw Jay Rosehill ejected for abuse of official.

Justin Faryna added Dundee’s fourth to make sure of the points as Braehead returned home empty-handed from their double weekend.

The results mean Braehead missed the chance to move up to fourth in the Elite League table with Manchester Storm next up on Wednesday in Glasgow.