By Kris Smith
Dundee welcomed Milton Keynes Lightning to the DIA for the first time since Peter Russell’s side joined the Elite League.
Dundee needed to bounce back from a heavy defeat, after losing 5-1 at the hands of the Fife Flyers in Saturday night’s Challenge Cup match. Milton Keynes had defeated the other new addition to the league, the Guildford Flames, 3-2 in their Challenge Cup group fixture.
Dundee were still searching for their first points in the league, after losing their first two games. Przemyslaw Odrobny returned between the pipes for Milton Keynes for the first time this season, following a short-term injury.
Dundee faced early pressure from the Lightning but it was the Stars who got the opening goal on home ice, Joey De Concilys fired home an unstoppable slapshot at 10:25.
Pavel Halas quickly put the Lightning on the man advantage as Emerson Hrynyk was penalised for tripping 23 seconds after play resumed, 19 seconds later Kevin King beat Travis Fullerton to tie the game with a powerplay goal.
Play restarted and it was end to end action but Milton Keynes were leading on the shot clock, however it was Dundee who would be leading on the scoreboard at the end of the first period, Marc-Oliver Mimar found Tyler Brickler at the backdoor and he fired into an gaping net at 18:40.
The second stanza was low in action for the first ten minutes but Guillaume Doucet was sent to the box for slashing 33:04 sending the Stars on the powerplay, a part of their game that had struggled over the past week.
However Tyler Brickler would give them a change of fortune as he bagged his second goal and Stars first powerplay goal of the night at 34:08. Dundee scored their fourth goal of the evening, through De Concilys, expanding their lead to 4-1 at 35:41.
Adam Harding and Doucet had a little tussle with some words exchanged and both sat for two minutes on roughing calls in the thirty-sixth minute. The second period ended with Omar Pacha’s Stars holding the three-goal lead.
No team could make a difference in the early part of the final period as the puck went from end-to-end and mistakes were not punished. Dundee were put on the powerplay again after Pavel Halas ejected Francis Verreault-Paul, he received a two minute roughing penalty and a twenty-five minute major for fighting.
Jimmy Jensen continued the revival of the Stars powerplay unit as he bagged the fifth goal at 57:22, almost guaranteeing the result. Although before the final buzzer, Ashley Tait was also ejected for abusing an official and received a game misconduct at 59:08.
Dundee claimed their first league win of the season, lifting them off the bottom of the league standings. The now look to continue the good response to a bad week of results as they face the Edinburgh Capitals next weekend in a double-header. Tickets for Saturdays home game can be purchased from the DIA box office and online,
Sunday’s game at Murrayfield is the Stars last Challenge Cup group stage game as they look to progress to the quarter-finals.
