By Kris Smith
Dundee currently prop up the 10-team Elite League but are just three points outside of the playoff spots, so a good weekend for the Tayside team can put them back into the post-season positions.
Their three-game winning streak was not extended into 2020 as they lost in their New Year’s home opener to the current league champions, Belfast Giants, by letting a 2-0 lead slip away from them.
With two losses from two fixtures at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham this season, Omar Pacha’s men have struggled to take points from the Panthers but in both games they did tie the score before going onto lose.
The fourth placed Nottinghamshire outfit have also found some fine form recently and are playing well after some tight battles with league leaders, Sheffield Steelers over the festive period.
They won their last match, which was in Sheffield on New Year’s Day as they battled to a 3-2 overtime win and their goals came from Jacob Hansen and Samuel Herr (2).
However, Tim Wallace was missing Brett Perlini, Joseph Hazeldine, Joshua Tetlow and Jon Rheault from his line-up and Dundee are still just one player short of a full roster as Kris Inglis continue his recovery form an upper body injury.
Also, Stars forward, Anthony Beauregard has already scored once on both of his previous visits to the Motorpoint Arena.
The Canadian centre also has netted in each of his last three ties with the Panthers and discussing his consistent scoring against Nottingham, Beauregard said: “I just try to keep my game simple like everybody was doing over the Christmas break but that shows just how effective we can be.
“For sure it’s nice to have some success but at the end of the day, if we continue to play like we have over the last two weeks, we are going to get some good results.
“We are all feeling good, we have played five good games in the past two weeks and I thought we played well last time out.
“In Nottingham, we need to play fast, we need to use our speed and be confident.
“We all know that we can play with those guys, so we need to go there and play a solid 60-minute game.”
Speaking about his side’s trip to Nottingham, Stars Head Coach, Pacha said: “It is a funny one, the first time we went down to Nottingham, the game was 2-2 and the puck hits a referee and goes back into our zone for them to score.
“But in the other game I thought Nottingham played a really solid home game and we made some critical mistakes.
“So, we have to limit our mistakes all weekend against two very good teams.”
Face-off time for this Saturday’s match in Nottingham is at 7pm.
