By Kris Smith
To start off week nine of our ‘Look Back’ series, we will be taking you back to the 2009-2010 campaign, which was the club’s ninth year in existence and their fifth season of competing in the Northern League and they also made their debut in the Celtic League.
Over the course of that season, the Stars played a total of 28 league games and achieved a third place finish in the Northern League before coming second in the Celtic League.
In the 2009-2010 campaign, the Northern League had shrunk to only five teams and was contested by; Dundee, Fife Flyers, Solway Sharks, Whitley Warriors and Braehead Paisley Pirates.
Meanwhile, there were only four teams in the Celtic League and Dundee, Fife and Solway were joined by Irish side, Charlestown Chiefs from Dundalk.
The Northern League was won for a second consecutive season by the Sharks after they had won 25 points, which was four more than Dundee.
The Stars were three points behind their main rivals, Fife but had the slightly bigger gap of four points in the Celtic League, as they were runners-up to the Flyers,
After the regular seasons had ended, Dundee had a record of 17-0-8-3 (wins-ties-losses-overtime losses) and they scored 126 goals and conceded 83 times over the 28 fixtures.
The Tayside club also qualified for both playoffs tournaments and made it to each final.
In the Northern League, they eliminated the Flyers in the Semi-Finals with a 5-1 victory in Kirkcaldy but went on to lose 4-2 to Solway in the Final.
Whereas in the Celtic League, the Stars defeated the Sharks 4-3 in overtime to reach the final but lost on penalties, as they slipped to a 4-3 defeat against Fife.
However, Dundee were involved in two cup competitions that year and found some success.
The Stars again competed for the Scottish Cup and the Scottish Autumn Cup and in the Scottish Cup, they won their first tie, which was in the Quarter-Finals against Kirkcaldy Kestrels.
Two large victories for the Stars sent them through to the Semi-Finals after they recorded 8-1 and 13-1 victories against the Kestrels.
In the Semi-Finals, they met the other team from Kirkcaldy and after two tightly contested legs, Dundee were eliminated by the Flyers, after suffering back-to-back 4-3 losses.
Fife would go on to win the Scottish Cup but in the Autumn Cup, the Stars would get their revenge.
Dundee topped the Eastern Group and progressed from the group stage along with, Fife and Western Group teams; Solway and Kilmarnock Storm.
The Stars had won all four of their games against the Flyers and Dundee Comets, scoring28 goals and conceding only six.
In the first knockout round, which was the Semi-Finals, Dundee faced Kilmarnock and battered the Storm 31-4 over two legs.
A 14-2 victory was followed up by another resounding win of 17-2 and that put them into the Final for another clash with their bitter rivals.
However, there was a clear winner in both legs of the Final, as Dundee claimed 10-1 victory in the first match before finishing off the Flyers 7-2 in game two.
That season’s top point scorer was forward, John Dolan with 33 points after he scored 14 times in the Northern League and assisted on a further 19 goals.
However, versatile forward, Gary Wishart did manage to find the net 17 times to make him the team’s top goal scorer that season.
Also, in his first season with the club, Tristan Harper was the most penalised player on the team with 48 penalty minutes from just eight appearances.
In the 2009-2010 season, the team had three Scottish netminders and starter, David Jackson, was joined by Mark McGill and Gavin Stark.
On the blue line, Chris Conaboy made his return to hockey after a two year absence and he was joined by the Marshall brothers, Jeff and Ross, as well as other key players such as Euan Forsyth, Craig Phillips and Sam McCluskey.
Meanwhile, the Stars had another dangerous offensive unit, with the usual threats of Dolan, John Haig and Wishart all signed up again but they also added a few other components in David Smith, Grant Reekie and Lewis Gold.
Next we will be bringing you a look back at one Star Player from the 2009-2010 season and that will be released Wednesday at 12pm!
If you want to be a part of the historic 20th Dundee Stars season then you can buy your season tickets by contacting [email protected]
