BELFAST GIANTS 3 TRADE-MART DUNDEE STARS 0

The Trade-Mart Dundee Stars were hoping to start their double header against Belfast Giants with a victory on the road but after a closely fought battle, the Northern Irish side wrapped up the 3-0 win with a pair of late goals.

By Kris Smith

The Stars had new signing Elijah Vilio on the ice for his debut and the defender would partner with Chris McKay, whilst Craig Moore was paired with the returning Sean Allen after he served his one-game suspension and forward, Jake Elmer was the healthy scratch.

Both teams began by slowly breaking each other down and each side had found early chances close to the net but neither Jackson Whistle or Dundee’s Kevin Carr could be beaten through the opening minutes.

However, the first goal of the game did soon come as on six minutes, David Phillips hard shot from inside the blueline hit a few different bodies in front of the Stars net before being directed into the Dundee goal via the skate of Vilio.

Through the rest of the first period, both teams would have a turn on the powerplay and found no luck whilst on the man advantage, although Anthony Rinaldi almost had the Taysiders level when he nearly beat Whistle in the 18th minute, but his shot was denied by the post.

The second session was a scoreless affair but did not lack opportunities as Dundee began to take control of the game and through multiple powerplays, they started to pepper the Giants keeper but there would be no way past Whistle.

A four-minute spell of each side being called for infractions meant that neither powerplay unit could be properly setup and they headed to the third period with the Giants still narrowly leading 1-0.

Marc LeFebvre’s men continued to push for an equaliser with Tommy Parrottino having a chance to get them off the mark but his heavy slapshot was held well by Whistle and more penalties would soon interrupt the flow of the game before the final 10 minutes.

With the Stars struggling to find a breakthrough, Greg Printz then capitalised on a breakaway to give Belfast the breathing room they needed as he fought off the back-checking Ryan Valentini and lifted the puck over Carr, in the 56th minute.

Dundee then gambled in the final two minutes and put out an extra attacker in place of keeper, Carr but Bobby MacIntyre would fire into the empty net to end the scoring at 3-0 and give the Giants the first set of two points, as the two clubs now travel to Tayside and do it all again tomorrow afternoon.

Man of the Match

Dundee: #9 Ryan Valentini

Belfast: #1 Jackson Whistle

Goals

1st:

1-0 David Phillips (Bobby MacIntyre, Greg Printz) 06:19

2nd:

3rd:

2-0 Greg Printz (Unassisted) 55:53

3-0 Bobby MacIntyre (Kohei Sato, Cameron Pound) 58:33 ENG

All images: William Cherry/Presseye.