By Luke McGinnis
Dundee are coming off a tough weekend which saw them fall 3-0 on the road to the Glasgow Clan on Saturday before losing 3-2 to the Fife Flyers at home the following night. These results officially eliminated the Stars from the Challenge Cup, with the Flyers securing second place in Group B.
“We have worked on our play without the puck and it has improved,” said Dutertre. “We need to find ways to generate offence. We’ve had some productive practice this week. It’s time to apply what we’ve been working on.”
The Stars’ last victory came against the Devils just under four weeks ago, a 3-2 overtime win at the Dundee Ice Arena. Travis Ewanyk and Zack Hoffman scored in regulation before Rasmus Nousiainen netted the overtime winner to complete the comeback after Cardiff had taken a 2-0 lead early in the game.
Since then, the Welsh side have compiled a 3-1-1 record across all competitions and are coming off a three-point weekend, having beaten the Guildford Flames 6-1 on Saturday before falling 4-3 to the Manchester Storm in a shootout the following night.
Josh MacDonald leads the league in goals with five and tops the regular-season scoring charts with ten points, while Ben Bowns and Christian Stoever both rank among the league’s top five goaltenders in goals-against average and save percentage.
“You have to go into every game believing you have an opportunity to win. That’s the approach to every game,” said Dutertre, discussing the mindset heading into Cardiff.
