TRADE-MART DUNDEE STARS 2 BELFAST GIANTS 3

The Trade-Mart Dundee Stars nearly completed another comeback from 3-1 down in the third period as they battled hard but came up short in a feisty encounter with Belfast Giants, at the DIA on Sunday.

By Kris Smith

The Stars lost starting goaltender, Kevin Carr to injury and that put Lucas Brine back into the starting six but they did regain defenseman, Kyle Pouncy as he returned after missing the last two matches, whilst Elijah Vilio missed out through illness.

The opening minutes saw Dundee come close to getting ahead as Craig Garrigan and Anthony Rinaldi both had chances when left unmarked in front of the Belfast net but they could not turn the puck past netminder, Tyler Beskorowany.

Meanwhile at the other end, Brine started off in red hot form denying multiple testing shots from the Giants before robbing Oliver Cooper of a certain goal as he got his glove up to snatch the puck out of mid-air.

Adam Keefe then got his powerplay unit out on the ice when Brendan Harms was called for a tripping foul in the 13th minute and Daniel Tedesco would open the scoring whilst on the man advantage, as he beat Brine by tucking home a rebound at the far post.

Dundee would respond just four minutes later as Anthony Rinaldi bagged a powerplay goal of his own, with Belfast’s Jacob Friend in the box for slashing, which allowed Rinaldi to tap in the rebound from Carter Johnson’s blocked shot.

In the second period, the game turned feisty after James Phelan collided with Eriksson at centre ice and Friend took exception after seeing his teammate left hurt down on the ice.

Friend and Phelan would then drop the gloves and go toe-to-toe exchanging blows until both fell to the ice.

Then just 17 seconds later, Tedesco bagged his second as he tucked home Blake Speers’ pass from behind the net and the visitors then made it 3-1 on 25 minutes as Tedesco completed the hat-trick with a second powerplay strike, this time beating Brine with a shot through traffic from the slot.

The tensions then continued to flair with different tussles breaking out through the remainder of the second period but the Giants would keep their two-goal lead heading into the third session.

However, Friend returned to the box for a third time after boarding Ryan Valentini inside 44 minutes and that allowed the Stars to get one goal back to make it 3-2, as Valentini’s stick broke on the initial shot but that put the puck into the path of Harms and he tucked it past Beskorowany.

Valentini would then be left hurt after a nasty hit from behind by Belfast’s Charlie Curti, which went unpunished and as Josh Brittain tried to step in and make Curti answer for his actions, the referees quickly got involved before anything could happen.

The Stars then pushed hard for the equaliser and with Valentini back on the ice, they also pulled Brine for the extra skater in the final minutes but could not beat the Belfast keeper again.

Dundee were left with only a point to show for their hard-fought battles this weekend but now have only three days to heal up before a trip to Nottingham to take on the Panthers on Valentine’s Day.

Man of the Match

Dundee: #44 Lucas Brine

Belfast: #23 Daniel Tedesco

Goals

1st:

0-1 Daniel Tedesco (Ciaran Long) 13:32 PPG

1-1 Anthony Rinaldi (Tommy Parrottino, Carter Johnson) 17:34 PPG

2nd:

1-2 Daniel Tedesco (Blake Speers) 23:01

1-3 Daniel Tedesco (Charlie Curti) 25:07 PPG

3rd:

2-3 Brendan Harms (Ryan Valentini, Drydn Dow) 45:52 PPG

All images: Derek Black.