Scott Dutertre’s men are coming off a hard-fought weekend of Challenge Cup action against the Belfast Giants, with the Northern Irish side claiming a 3-1 win on Friday and a 4-0 shutout win over the Stars on Sunday.
Carl Stankowski once again impressed between the pipes, making 29 saves and posting a .906 save percentage on Friday night. Sunday saw Vladislav Pestov return to the Stars’ lineup for his first start in over two weeks, recording 42 saves and a .913 save percentage.
“It was frustrating,” said Dutertre. “We went over some stuff with video, and I thought we did a good job of preparing but then we came out and were flat right from the start. We started chasing the puck and we were running around, we completely lost our composure and structure.”
The Manchester Storm have already appeared in five regular-season matchups, picking up two wins over the Glasgow Clan.
However, Cam Critchlow’s side lost both of their games at the weekend, with a 2-0 loss to the Cardiff Devils on Saturday followed by a 3-1 defeat to the Coventry Blaze the following night.
Brandon Cutler leads Manchester in scoring with 10 points across all competitions, followed by newcomer Tim McGauley on seven.
Former Stars captain Drydn Dow makes his return to Dundee following an offseason move to the Storm after seven seasons in Tayside, including five as captain.
“It hasn’t been the start that we were looking for but for our group we have to stick together when times are tough and I think we’re doing that,” concluded Dutertre. “We need to have a good start tonight and get back on track.”
Faceoff is scheduled for 7:30pm at the Dundee Ice Arena.
