By Luke McGinnis
Marc LeFebvre’s men are coming off a split weekend, having defeated the Coventry Blaze 6-4 on Saturday before falling 7-2 to the Glasgow Clan the following night.
“Against Coventry we had a really good thirty five minutes for the most part, and then the last twenty five we weren’t very good,” began LeFebvre. “I’m happy with two points against a very good Coventry team, and something we’ve struggled with this season is scoring goals so to get six I’m happy with.
“Saturday, we looked like we didn’t want to play, maybe four or five guys showed up in that game and the scoreline really reflects that. You’ve got to be dialed in every game, the teams are too good in this league so you’ve got to show up every night.”
Tonight marks the final meeting between the Stars and Panthers this season, with the sides having faced off five times already. Nottingham claimed the first three encounters, while Dundee have won the last two.
“Nottingham have a lot of firepower and great goaltending, but we’ve won in their building before so we should have some confidence going in there,” said LeFebvre.
Former Panther Otto Nieminen leads the Stars offensively against his former side with seven points, followed by Keanu Yamamoto and Justin Bean on five apiece. Meanwhile, David Noël leads Nottingham with seven points, while Mitch Fossier and Bryan Lemos have both recorded five.
Emil Kruse has been in net for both of the Stars’ wins over the English side, while Jason Grande has picked up two wins and Kevin Carr has recorded one for Nottingham.
The Panthers have won five of their nine games since their last meeting with Dundee, including victories over the league-leading Belfast Giants and third-placed Cardiff Devils.
Tim Doherty leads with 42 points in 41 games, while Matt Marcinew is riding a ten-game point streak, having recorded 15 points in that span.
“It’s loud in that rink, they get behind their team pretty quick but they also go against their team sometimes when things aren’t going well, so we’ve got to take the crowd out of it right away,” LeFebvre concluded.
