By Kris Smith
To start off week 11 of our ‘Look Back’ series, we will be taking you back to the 2011-2012 campaign, which was the club’s 11th year in existence and their second season of competing in the Elite League.
Over the course of that season, the Stars played a total of 54 Elite League games and again claimed the last playoff spot with an eighth place finish in the league table.
In the 2011-2012 campaign, the Elite League was again contested by ten teams and there was only one change to the list of clubs competing, as Newcastle Vipers dropped out and were replaced by Dundee’s oldest rivals, Fife Flyers.
Belfast Giants were crowned league champions that year, with 95 points and they finished 63 points ahead of the Stars.
Although, Dundee had edged Edinburgh Capitals out of the playoff berths by just two points and they were 10 clear of the Flyers, who finished last.
After the regular seasons had ended, Dundee had a record of 13-35-6 (wins-losses-overtime losses) and they scored 140 goals and conceded 215 over the 54 fixtures.
In the first round of the playoffs, which was the Quarter-Finals, the Stars were seeded against Giants and unsurprisingly were quickly eliminated by league winners.
A 5-0 loss in Belfast was followed up by a 9-0 defeat in Dundee but the Giants went on to lose to Cardiff Devils in the Semi-Finals.
The Tayside team also competed in the Elite League’s Challenge Cup but failed to make it out of their group in the first stage of the competition.
However, the Stars did finish third in Group A after winning nine points from eight matches and came only behind Belfast and Braehead Clan, with the Clan only having two more points than Dundee.
The Panthers went on to win a second straight Challenge Cup and added that to their playoff title for that season, giving them a double trophy haul.’
That season’s top point scorer was forward, Jeff Hutchins, who put up 61 points in the same amount of games and he led the team in assists as well, with 39.
Although, he tied with fellow forward, Jarrett Konkle for the most goals, as they both scored 22 times in all competitions.
Also, American defenseman, Chris Zarb was again the most penalised player on the team with 165 penalty minutes from 60 appearances.
In the 2011-2012 season, the team had two active netminders in Chris Whitely and Mark McGill.
On the blue line, Dundee had many tough bodies such as; Matt Suderman, Brennan Turner, Dan McGoff, Euan Forsyth and Steven Chalmers.
Meanwhile, the offence had an abundance of firepower in players like; John Dolan, Brent Hughes, A.J. MacLean, Mark Kolanos, Gary Wishart and Jarrett Konkle.
Next we will be bringing you a look back at one Star Player from the 2011-2012 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]
