RYAN FINNERTY declared himself proud of his Braehead Clan players after returning back to Glasgow following a baptism of fire in European ice hockey.

But the Clan head coach could not help think what might have been had indiscipline not got the better of his players during an enthralling encounter in Germany on Saturday night.

In the Scottish side’s Champions Hockey League opener in Sweden on Thursday, top seeds Vaxjo Lakers handed out a masterclass showing in a 10-2 defeat that still gave plucky Braehead cause for optimism.

That was on display in Germany on Saturday night when the visitors took a shock but deserved lead through Matt Keith in the first period.

Clan would eventually fall behind only to level at 2-2 before the DEL outfit raced away to a 5-2 victory.

It was a harsh scoreline for Braehead given all they had put into the game, but Finnerty was honest when analysing the importance of his team’s concession of three power play goals to the German cracks.

He said: “We lost three goals in a 5-2 game so it’s pretty easy to figure out where we went wrong. I thought we deserved something from the game.

“Obviously I’m disappointed about the result, but you can’t play five-on-threes against a team like this.

“We outplayed them in the first period and they couldn’t handle us. They only broke away in the third and the penalties did that.

“They showed we had nothing to be afraid of. For the budget and where they are, they’re not too far ahead of us. We came to a tough barn, outplayed them and it got taken away from us.

“They didn’t earn the game. We gave it to them and we’ll prove it when we meet in Glasgow in a couple of weeks."

It was a busy couple of nights for Braehead’s new netminder Chris Holt.

Despite conceding 15 goals over both matches, the former NHLer from Vancouver more than played his part, racking up an astonishing 74 stops, with a save percentage of just over 83 per cent.

He told Clan Radio after Saturday’s defeat: “I think we did a lot of things right. I think they got a couple of five on three goals and a couple of lucky bounces, and we really shot ourselves in the foot by taking too many penalties towards the end.

“That’s something we can control and hopefully fix. When they come to our barn in Braehead this is definitely a team we have the ability to beat.

“Aside from the results being frustrating, I feel good out there, that I’m making good saves and the relationships with the guys in front of me are building.”