The Trade-Mart Dundee Stars can make it a four-point weekend if they can pull off an upset on home ice against Belfast Giants tonight.

By Kris Smith

The Stars host the Giants and come into the game on form after winning five points out of a possible six in their last three matches.

Last night, Dundee came back from 3-1 down in the third period to force Guildford Flames into overtime, before claiming the extra point with a powerplay goal.

Samuel Talbot had fired the visitors into the lead on seven minutes before Keanu Yamamoto tipped home an equaliser just over a minute later.

Although, the Flames would regain the lead inside 13 minutes as Joshua Waller turned the puck past Richard Sabol and that left Paul Dixon’s side ahead after the first period.

The first penalty of the night then came in the first minute of the second period as Waller was called for boarding but the Taysiders were unable to draw level with the temporary man advantage.

In fact there would be no scoring in the middle stanza, despite Guildford having three powerplay opportunities but in the third period, Brett Welychka made it 3-1 to the Surrey outfit in the 47th minute, as he shot straight after the face-off.

However, Marc LeFebvre’s men conjured up a quick response as Brendan Harms fired the puck under the arm of Jake Kupsky in the Guildford goal, just two minutes after the restart.

 

 

The Stars then equalised 54 seconds later as Yamamoto tapped home the rebound from Philippe Sanche’s saved effort and with exactly 11 minutes left on the clock, both teams were cautious not to lose the game in the final moments.

Neither side would find a late winner and the game went into five minutes of three-on-three overtime, although there would be only 15 seconds of three-on-three hockey as just 15 seconds in, Yamamoto would be called for hooking.

The Flames could not take advantage of the extra skater and then drew a penalty themselves as Travis Brown was boxed for holding, which on the ensuing powerplay, allowed Zach Tsekos to turn home the winner on the 63-minute mark and win the extra point for Dundee.

Now, Dundee welcomes the Giants back to Scotland and look for their first win over Adam Keefe’s side on attempt number nine this season but three of those defeats have been by a single goal, with two of Belfast’s wins coming in overtime.

The Northern Irish club played in Kirkcaldy last night as they were 7-5 winners against Fife Flyers, extending their unbeaten run to eight matches and improving their lead at the top of table to eight points.

 

 

Belfast had led 5-1 after 41 minutes but saw their lead vanish as the Flyers came back to score four goals in nine minutes, before the Giants stole back the lead with 50 seconds left in the game and sealed the two points with an empty net goal, 13 seconds from time.

J.J. Piccinich (3), Karl Boudrais, Elijiah Barriga, David Goodwin and Scott Conway were all amongst goals in Fife yesterday, with Jackson Whistle back-stopping them to a win, before having a fight with the Flyers keeper at the end of the game.

Discussing tonight’s visit from Belfast, Stars Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre said: “From top to bottom, they have the best depth in the league, they are well drilled and they have a lot of guys back from their title winning team two years ago, so they know how to win.

“They will be up for it because they want to close in on that league title again and they have a good gap right now, so they want to keep building that but for us, we want to beat these guys because if we make the playoffs and end up meeting these guys then we need to find a way to beat them.

“We can play with them but we need to be dialled in for 60 minutes because if you make one mistake, they make you pay and it is in the back of your net.”

Face-off for tonight’s home game against Belfast is at 5pm.

All images: Derek Black.

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