By Kris Smith
The Stars started off last weekend in Northern Ireland on Friday night and they had high hopes of showing up the Belfast Giants in their own arena for a second time this season.
However, Adam Keefe’s men would win 7-2 as they put on a clinical performance against Dundee.
As mentioned in last week’s article, Anthony Beauregard went into the SSE Arena with four points (2+2) against Giants already this season and on his latest visit he notched up two more assists.
The Stars captain, Matt Marquardt had tied the game in the first period with what was his seventh goal of the season while Elgin Pearce scored his third goal in the last three games and eighth in this campaign.
On Saturday, Dundee got a massive two points at home against Glasgow Clan and that was enough to lift them off the foot of the Elite League table.
After a 3-2 win for the Stars, the number of goals scored over three games with Glasgow now sit at 16 for Dundee and seven for the Clan.
There was also a pattern with the Stars scorers last Saturday and it is one that is rarely seen as #7 Pearce, #14 Jordan Cownie and #21 Colton Kroeker all netted for the Tayside team.
Kroeker’s opening goal was his fourth as a Star and when Cownie doubled the lead he opened his account for this season before Pearce’s finish took him to nine goals in 18 games and gave him his six point against Zack Fitzgerald’s side (4+2).
In terms of points scored, Kevin Dufour and Beauregard were the two main scorers talked about last week and both players picked up an assist in the Scottish rivalry game to add to their totals of 2+3 (Dufour) and 3+1 (Beauregard).
Omar Pacha’s men also had their second mid-week game of this season as they paid a visit to Nottingham Panthers on Wednesday evening.
Dundee battled hard and deservedly had the game tied at 2-2 early in the third but a few questionable calls allowed the home side to get back in front.
A 5-2 loss dented the momentum Stars took from their home win over Glasgow but there were plenty positives for Dundee to take from the game.
One of the main positives was that for the first time in six games they killed off all their penalties.
The last time they had a 100 per cent penalty kill record in a game was at the start of the month when they won away to Fife Flyers in the Challenge Cup.
At the Motorpoint Arena, Dundee defenseman, Jagger Dirk collected his 12th assist of the season and netminder, Alex Leclerc assisted on a goal for the second time this campaign but it was his first in the league.
There are four players going into this weekend’s matches on point streaks as Pearce and Beauregard both have scored five points in the last four games, while Dirk and Dufour each have two points in the previous two matches.
Both Beauregard and Pearce reached the 20-point milestone in the last game but Dufour still leads the team with 21.
However, Pearce has taken over as leader of goals and points for Dundee in the league with six goals and 13 points, Dirk has the most assists with nine.
Week 10 sees the Stars travel to Braehead for another clash with the Clan, just seven days after Dundee’s 3-2 win on Tayside.
With Pacha’s men maintaining their 100 per cent win record against Glasgow last week, Fitzgerald’s side have been handed two more opportunities to prevail over their Scottish rivals as they will meet in the Challenge Cup Quarter-Finals.
On Sunday evening, Andrew Lord brings his Cardiff Devils side to Dundee for the first time this season and in their only previous meeting this season, it was a 14-goal thriller.
Dundee had led the game four times but with a couple of controversial calls, the Devils would go on to win 8-6.
The Stars goals were scored by Pearce (2), Drydn Dow (2), Dufour and Maylan while Mark Richardson, Sean McMonagle, Mathias Sointu, Matthew Pope (2), Gleason Fournier, Stephen Dixon and Matthew Myers all found the net for the Welsh side.
Both Maylan and Dow had three points in the game at the Viola Arena and they will be hoping to add to their totals this weekend.
Face off time for this Sunday’s home game against Cardiff is at 5pm. Tickets can be purchased HERE!
Thanks to www.starsstats.co.uk/ which was created by Dave Sweetin and Elite Prospects for making some of the information used in this article available online.
