By Kris Smith
In the club’s 16th season, they finished seventh in the Elite League with 46 points from 52 fixtures and that meant they had replicated their second highest finish in the EIHL.
In the 10 team league, the Stars won 38 per cent of their Elite League matches that season but they were 11 points behind their Scottish rivals, Braehead Clan and seven points behind their biggest rivals, Fife Flyers.
The Kirkcaldy club claimed the place above Dundee and the Clan came in at fifth but there was then an 11-point gap between Dundee and Edinburgh Capitals, who propped up the league.
Also, there was 35 points between the Stars and the league winning Cardiff Devils side and Dundee also had a negative goal difference of -13 in that campaign after scoring 206 goals and conceding 219 times across the Elite League, playoffs and Challenge Cup.
However, against their Scottish rivals that season, Dundee won just more than half of their matches and outscored all three teams 119-100 overall.
Therefore, against Fife, the Stars won six of the 10 Tayside Derbies and outscored their arch enemies, 38-35 but they would split their 12 game series with Braehead and be slightly outscored by 38-37.
Also, against Edinburgh, Dundee again split the series as both clubs won five games each but there were a few large victories for the Stars and that helped them to outscore the Caps 44-27.
Thus, the Tayside team’s biggest win, shutout and highest scoring match all came against Edinburgh.
A 10-3 victory at home in December was the Stars biggest winning margin of the season and their highest scoring match of the campaign but their largest shutout also happened in DIA, as they blanked the Caps 6-0 in January.
In the 2016-2017 season, American forward, Vinny Scarsella led the team in points and assists in the Elite League with 72 points (18 goals + 54 assists) from 52 league matches.
Meanwhile, Dutch winger, Kevin Bruijsten led the team in league goals with 23 strikes in 47 appearances but Canadian forward, Justin Faryna was the most penalised Star during league matches, after racking up 86 penalty minutes from 43 games.
Also, in the Challenge Cup, Scarsella again led the team with the most goals, assists and points with seven goals and eight assists for 10 points from 10 cup fixtures.
However, captain, Joey Sides also netted seven times during the Challenge Cup campaign and Faryna was once again the most punished player, after spending 22 minutes in the sin bin.
Finally, Faryna was the team’s top point scorer during the playoffs, after he collected five points (two goals + three assists) in the three post-season matches.
Next-up in our ‘Look Back’ series, we catch-up with a former Star from the 2016-2017 season and see how his life has changed since leaving the Stars.
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]
