TRADE-MART DUNDEE STARS 1 NOTTINGHAM PANTHERS 4

The Trade-Mart Dundee Stars were beaten 4-1 at home by Nottingham Panthers on Sunday night as they let the visitors into the lead and failed to find their way back into the match.

By Kris Smith

The Stars made two changes to their line-up as Jarrett Fiske and Craig Moore were the healthy scratches while Alex Robert and Dominick Jaglar came back into line-up but the home side would find themselves behind just three minutes into the game.

After Dundee’s Xavier Pouliot and Nottingham’s Joshua Tetlow had gone toe-to-toe in a scrap in only the second minute, the English side took advantage of an early energy boost and cashed it in for the opening goal as Tim Doherty lifted the puck past Richard Sabol.

The Taysiders then worked hard for an equaliser but struggled to beat Jason Grande in the opening period as he made some key saves for the Panthers and he was rewarded with a second goal to give his side a two-goal cushion heading to the second period.

In the 19th minute, Doherty would turn from scorer to provider as set up Matt Alfaro to fire home past Sabol and that put Marc LeFebvre’s men even more on the back foot but they would quickly find themselves in a deeper hole.

Just 26 seconds had passed in the middle stanza before Didrik Henbrant added the visitors third goal and he blasted Hugo Roy’s pass from behind the net straight past Sabol.

The Stars still could not find a way past Grande and even with a powerplay chance late in the second session, they were still trailing 3-0 heading to the third period and despite gaining another man advantage in the first seven seconds of the third, Grande remained unbeatable.

However, Dundee eventually found their way onto the scoreboard in the 46th minute as Keanu Yamamoto’s pass to the front of goal from the left side, took Grande out of the equation and left Brett Gravelle a wide-open net to score into.

Some afters followed the goal as Kris Inglis and Nottingham’s Zsombor Garat both picked up roughing penalties in the aftermath of a stramash but that then put the home team back on the hunt for a route back into the game.

Although, Danny Stewart’s men would hold firm and their solid defence kept the Stars out for the remainder of the game before Otto Nieminen bagged an empty net goal with 10 seconds remaining.

For the second week in a row, Dundee have failed to win on home ice and have missed a chance to draw level on points with Glasgow Clan, who have three games in hand over the Stars but next week a road game against Guildford Flames on Saturday is their only fixture and it is a must-win for the Tayside team.

Man of the Match

Dundee: #17 Zach Tsekos

Nottingham: #18 Mitch Fossier

Goals

1st:

0-1 Tim Doherty (Matt Alfaro) 02:17

0-2 Matt Alfaro (Tim Doherty) 18:23

2nd:

0-3 Didrik Henbrant (Hugo Roy) 20:26

3rd:

1-3 Brett Gravelle (Keanu Yamamoto, Drydn Dow) 45:14

1-4 Otto Nieminen (Unassisted) 59:50 ENG

All images: Derek Black.