By Kris Smith
Last Week
The Stars faced Nottingham Panthers in back-to-back games but were unable to pick up any of the four points on offer.
Nottingham Panthers 6 Dundee Stars 1
On Saturday, Dundee were beaten down at the Motorpoint Arena as the Panthers pounced on defensive errors.
Anthony Beauregard scored the only Stars goal and that goal had tied the game at 1-1 in the first period.
Dundee Stars 2 Nottingham Panthers 3
On Sunday evening, the two teams did it all over again but this time at the Dundee Ice Arena but the result was the same.
Sam Herr opened the scoring to put Tim Wallace’s men ahead and after also scoring on Saturday night, that was his fourth goal of the season against Dundee.
Whereas, Drydn Dow tied the game in the opening minute of the second period and that was the defenseman’s fifth goal in the last eight matches.
Anthony Beauregard’s late strike cancelled out Oliver Betteridge’s goal and left Nottingham with just a one-goal lead but it was a lead they were able to protect until the end.
As a team, the Stars hit the 1000 shots mark this weekend and are just one goal shy of 100 goals in all competitions.
After netting twice on the powerplay this weekend but also conceding twice while on the penalty kill, Dundee’s special teams now have 27 powerplay goals for and 26 PPG’s against.
The powerplay success rate is 18 per cent after converting 27 of the 147 powerplay opportunities they have had this season and the penalty kill sits at 80 per cent as the Stars have seen out 103 of the 129 penalties they have taken.
Points Leaders
In the league, the Stars have two players tied as the team’s top scorers as both Matt Marquardt and Kevin Dufour have netted 10 times. Defender, Jagger Dirk still leads the team in assists with 15 and his fellow blueliner, Dow has the most points with 23.
Now, Dow also has the most Man of the Match awards with six as he passed Alex Leclerc (5) at the weekend and Beauregard has the most powerplay goals in league action with five.
Also, last Sunday, Stars netminder Leclerc made his 800th save in the league.
Point-Streaks
Beauregard has the longest streak in the team with a point in each of the last four games and both Marquardt and new signing, Matt Carter also have a point per game in their last two matches.
Therefore, Carter has a point in every appearance he has made this season.
This Week
In Week 18, it is the second of three straight double headers as the Stars go back-to-back with their arch rivals.
Fife Flyers
The first clash is at the DIA tonight before the Stars go to Kirkcaldy this Saturday and from the first four meetings this season, the home team is yet to win.
Dundee won 4-3 and 3-1 in Fife earlier this season but Todd Dutiaume’s men were 2-0 and 5-1 winners on their two trips across the Tay this year.
This is the Stars final home game of 2019 and they are aiming to give the home fans a happy ending to their 2019.
Both, Dufour and Marquardt have scored twice against Fife this season and the Flyers have a few players who have scores multiple goals in the derby fixtures; Chase Schaber and Danick Gauthier (3), Carlo Finucci and Tim Crowder (2).
Also, Dundee nearly have a total attendance of 75,000 for this season and are only 384 people away reaching the milestone.
It is a 5pm face-off for tonight’s home game at the DIA and Saturday’s away game in Fife will start at 7:15pm. Buy your tickets for tonight’s home game HERE.
Thanks to www.starsstats.co.uk/ which was created by Dave Sweetin (@dave_sweetin) and Elite Prospects for making some of the information used in this article available online.
