By Kris Smith
The Stars welcome the Steelers to Tayside following last night’s 4-0 loss on the road against Nottingham Panthers.
Quinn Wichers had the hosts 1-0 in front after the first period, when he lifted home a loose puck on 9 minutes but the second period saw Danny Stewart’s side explode offensively and they took a 4-0 lead.
Three goals in seven minutes, quickly put the game beyond Dundee as Tim Doherty was next to fire past Jarrett Fiske inside 26 minutes, before Matt Alfaro added the third with a close range finish in the 29th minute.
Didrik Henbrant would then round off the scoring for the evening with Nottingham’s fourth goal in 33 minutes, as Jason Grande denied all 27 shots from the Stars at the other end and they failed to capitalise on three powerplay chances throughout the match.
Meanwhile, tonight’s opposition, comes in the form of the reigning Elite League treble holders and the Steelers are also reeling from defeat as they were beaten 6-0 at home by Coventry Blaze.
The Yorkshire outfit were beaten 6-2 in South Wales on Wednesday by Cardiff Devils and sit second in the league on 58 points, heading into the weekend but before arriving in Dundee, they host Coventry this evening,
Aaron Fox’s men have already won twice in Dundee this season, beating the Stars 6-2 and 4-3, but the Scots did cause an upset in their most recent visit to Sheffield as they walked away as 4-2 victors from the Utilita Arena.
Speaking after last night’s loss in Nottingham, Stars Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre said: “I thought in the opening 20 we played a pretty good road period, we only gave up six shots and we limited their chances.
“Even though we were 1-0 down, I thought we had a couple good chances on the powerplay to tie it up and in the second period, it was a pretty even game but we opened ourselves up a bit too much.
“They score three goals on probably four big mistakes that we made that period and they all end up in the back of our net.
“We had plenty of good chances ourselves but Grande made some big saves for Nottingham tonight and in the third period, you could just tell by our lack of depth that we had no legs.
“We were just kind of hanging on for dear life there at the end but we were unfortunate not to get something out of the game tonight, in terms of even a goal or some points but I am not going to blame the effort on the guys, we did well with what we had tonight.”
Switching his focus to tonight’s encounter with Sheffield on Tayside, he continued: “Other than the last few games, I thought they had been one of the better on-form teams over the last month or so.
“They have turned back the clock to last season and the way they were playing to win a grand slam treble and Sheffield has that lore to them that everybody seems to fall for sometimes.
“In the last couple of games, we have beaten them down there and then ran them close at home, so it is another challenge for us and in games like those you have to be dialled for every shift.”
Face-off for home game against Sheffield is at 5pm.
All images: Derek Black.
