By Kris Smith
The Stars have already claimed victories against Glasgow Clan and the Flyers, both on the road as they defeated each team either side of Christmas and both by scorelines of 4-2.
Before Christmas, Brendan Harms, Ryan Valentini, Brent Beaudoin and Spencer Naas fired the Stars back into the win column with a deserved win in Glasgow and on Boxing Day, Carter Johnson, Valentini, Anthony Rinaldi and Beaudoin all lit the lamp to take the first set of points in the first of back-to-back Tayside Derbies.
Yesterday, the Stars skated to a 4-2 victory in Kirkcaldy but had to fight back from a goal down after Kyle Osterberg put Tom Coolen’s men ahead in the first period, but a quick strike from Johnson levelled the game in the second period, before Valentini put Dundee in front.
Rinaldi then scored straight from a face-off to increase the Stars lead to 3-1 in the third period, however Max Humitz got one back for the Flyers to make it a one-goal game.
Although, Beaudoin’s powerplay goal restored the two-goal cushion and Dundee held on to claim the two points in what was a gritty battle all-night.
Dundee had been playing without injured defender, Kris Inglis and forward, Jake Elmer but will also now be without blueliner, Sean Allen tonight after he was suspended for one-match for checking Fife’s Osterberg from behind.
The Flyers are also missing a number of players, most notably, import goaltender, Shane Owen and also Stephen Desrocher and Colin Shirley.
Reflecting on last night’s win and discussing what he wants to see from his side tonight, Stars Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre said: “Those are two massive points on the road against our rivals but we cannot be playing like that.
“We will lose every game we play, on most nights, if we play like that and we look like we celebrated Christmas maybe a little too hard.
“We are fortunate to come out of here with two points tonight but at the end of the day I am happy that we have got those points and we have to be ready to go back at it again tomorrow, starting 0-0.”
He continued: “We better come ready to play because those guys came ready, they gave us everything we could handle, they blocked shots and were structurally sound for the most part, we just took advantage of some opportunities
“We need a much better effort from start to finish, Christmas is over and we need to realise that and this is a meaty part of our schedule where we need points in the standings and we may have won tonight, but we need better overall tomorrow.”
Face-off for tonight’s home game is at 7:30pm and you can buy your tickets HERE!
