By Kris Smith
Dundee Stars face fresh opponents at Dundee Ice Arena tonight in Coventry Blaze, as the two Elite League sides clash for the first time this season. Buy your tickets HERE!
The West Midlands club come to Tayside tonight and will be looking to improve on their current league position of sixth.
However, Danny Stewart’s men will be wary of the offensive threat the Stars possess, who currently have the best powerplay in the league, with a conversion rate of 25 per cent and also the most goals scored per game in all EIHL competitions at 3.85 goals per game.
Looking ahead to the weekend, Stars head coach, Pacha said: “We just have to move on from the last few games and play a bit better defensively.
“We are converting our chances, but we are conceding too many goals, so our main focus this week was playing well defensively in our zone, as a five-man unit.
“Everybody knows that we have done so well in the Challenge Cup and now it is really important to translate how we played in the cup into the league phase.
“The guys know the importance of the game on Saturday, but again we need to get back to playing good five-on-five hockey, especially in the defensive zone and making sure we spend less time there.”
With their first match against Coventry tonight, the Canadian share his expectations.
He said: “They work hard and are good defensively now they have improved, as they added a better goalie from last year, so it will be an interesting challenge.
“Both teams are similar in the way they work, but I think we might have a bit more offence. But they are defensively sound and a really good team.
“Hopefully we can make sure we concede less goals and that is our number one priority for the weekend and playing well when we do have the puck.”
Pacha has also set some target for his squad to help them get back on track.
He added: “A lot of them are defensive because we want to be defensively better and it’s the little details but they go a long way and we just have to be a little more hard-working in our defensive zone, win our battles and I think that will lead us to success.”
Former Coventry player, Brython Preece has said the team have been working hard all week to prepare themselves for this weekend.
He said: “We want to win and bounce back from last weekend.
“We have a good team in the locker room and have all put our heads down and worked hard this week.
“It’s our top priority to get wins in the league right now, we got the job done in the Challenge Cup and we need to get better every week to put ourselves in a good spot in the league standings.”
Saturday’s opponents are Preece’s former employer and he said this about facing his old team: “You want to win every game you play no matter who the opponent is but I’m sure it will make the result feel a bit sweeter once we get the result that we want.
“They always have a hard-working team and have had some good results but I think we match up well against them and we have prepared ourselves this week to get that win.”
Face-off for tonight’s home game is 7pm. Buy your tickets NOW!
