By Kris Smith
Tomorrow night is hockey night in Dundee and it is a huge game in the Challenge Cup as Dundee will face-off with the Edinburgh Capitals for the fourth time this season.
Omar Pacha expects his side to ‘repair the mistakes’ they made against Sheffield and use this ‘big game’, to go top of the group.
“It’s a big game of the Challenge Cup phase, we need to repair the mistakes from Tuesday and so far we have 4 out of 6 points and it is our last home game of the group stage, so we want to make it count.
“We have a chance to put ourselves on top and we need more points to make it into the top eight and advance to the next stage. It really is a huge night for us, it is another Saturday night game, so we hope we can get a good turnout and the guys can build from that and get the win.”
The Stars have only beaten Dmitri Khristich’s side once and it was a friendly at the DIA. Dundee lost twice at Murrayfield, once on a shootout and then they were shutout 3-0 during the Scottish Cup Third/Fourth place game. Omar Pacha will look to keep his side’s 100% home record in the fourth home game of the year.
Both teams have key dangermen, who can change the game in a single shift. Edinburgh’s Mike Cazzola has already scored twice against Dundee and shown his ability to punish teams when mistakes are made.
Sergei Banashkov, Mike D’Orazio and Marek Tvrdon have also found the net when playing against the Stars, also Pavel Shegalo will be hard to beat once more, as he got the better of Dundee with a shutout in the last game.
However the Stars possess their own threats in Malcolm Gould, ex-Capital Taylor Dickin, Gabriel Lévesque, Adam Harding and their current top scorer Jimmy Jensen, who have all scored against the Caps this season and will be hungry for more.
Travis Fullerton will be eyeing up his first shutout of the season as he faces his former team once more, looking to get the better of them in this key match.
Dundee took a huge blow as Chris Lawrence has been ruled out until Christmas and is due to undergo surgery in the coming days and Stars will also be without Anthony Mastrodicasa, who sustained an upper-body injury against Sheffield on Tuesday.
Talking about the injury blow that hit the Stars this week, Omar added: “Obviously the injuries are unfortunate, but at this moment in time we are looking at every single option and I am active as of now and we will only make the decisions that will have the right impact for the team.”
The Caps have welcomed back Jay King and Callum Boyd from injury, both featured in last Sunday’s game against Belfast, where Edinburgh lost 6-5 on home ice. Pavel Vorobyev may
make his first appearance for the Caps this weekend after his arrival to the Scottish capital was delayed.
Also Dillion Lawrence has resigned with the Capitals for the 2017/18 season after a successful trial period and might ice this weekend, depending on if the paperwork goes through in time.
Tickets are available from the DIA box office or online and also their will also be a live game webcast.
There is also an exclusive game night offer on selected food and drinks, it will cost just £2 for hotdogs, vodka, Strongbow cider and Carling lager.
