By Kris Smith
The Stars are aiming to get something from this weekend after losing 5-2 to Glasgow Clan last night and they were missing Charlie Combs, Kris Inglis, Alexandre Ranger and Caly Robertson from their line-up.
The first goal of the night came in the 13th minute and it went the way of Glasgow, as Mikko Vainionen picked out the top right corner of the Stars net.
Malcolm Cameron’s men managed to maintain their narrow lead heading into the second period and soon doubled their advantage with a powerplay goal.
With Dundee’s Dillon Lawrence, Markus Kankaanperä and Kyle Haas all in the penalty box, the Clan capitalised on their two man advantage as Mitch Jones blasted his shot past Adam Morrison from the high slot.
The home side then quickly added a third goal to push them further ahead as Braylon Shmyr demonstrated hi skilful abilities on 34 minutes.
The Canadian forward took the puck past two Dundee defenders before beating Morrison with a late backhanded shot that flew into the near side top corner, to make it 3-0.
Omar Pacha needed a response from his players in the third period and that is just what he got, as Philippe Sanche got the Stars off the mark in the 45th minute.
After controlling a dropped pass from Connor Sills, Dundee’s Canadian winger quickly turned and picked out the right top corner of Shane Starrett’s net.
Then just three minutes later, Sills turned from provider to scorer as he beat the Glasgow goalie with a rising shot from between the circles.
However, just as the Tayside team looked like they might complete the comeback, they ran into more penalty trouble and with Lawrence back in the sin bin, Mathieu Roy was left unattended in front of the Dundee net and allowed to redirect the puck past Morrison.
With the Stars back to being two goals behind, Pacha pulled out all the stops including using his timeout and swapping his goalie for an extra attacker, but all that would happen as a result would be the Clan scoring into an empty net in the final minutes.
Guillaume Gauthier’s empty-netter secured Glasgow’s second win of the season against Dundee and kept the Clan above the Stars in the league table.
Meanwhile, Manchester have struggled for points as of late and suffered a fifth defeat in six games on Saturday night, as they lost 7-2 to the Sheffield Steelers on home ice.
Jared Vanwormer and Dallas Ehrhardt were on the scoresheet for the Manchester but the game would be abandoned with just over 11 minutes to go due to a medical emergency in the crowd.
In five matches against the Storm this season, Dundee have won twice at home and also lost two times already in Manchester.
This will be their last regular season meeting and so far the Altrincham side have outscored the Stars 17-15.
Speaking ahead of their final league trip to Manchester, Stars forward, Craig Garrigan said: “We know we always struggle in a small arena like that but if we keep playing like the way we did against Cardiff, then hopefully we can get a good result away from home.
“I thought we preformed pretty well at home in the last few games, obviously if you take away that Belfast game.
“However, we have said as a team that we need to find that consistency in our game and find that good form that we had before the COVID break.”
Craig continued: “When you come up against Manchester, you know they are going to be physical because there is not a lot of space and you do not get a lot of time on the puck.
“So, we have to play a simple game, be smart with puck, try to avoid turnovers on the blueline and be physical like they are going to be.”
Face-off time for this tonight’s away match in Manchester is at 6:30pm.
