By Kris Smith
The Stars battled with Belfast Giants last Saturday and came out 4-3 winners as well as finishing first in Group A of the Challenge Cup for the first time in franchise history.
It was also first time they have won the opening two games against Belfast and swept them in the Challenge Cup group stage since the 2015-16 season.
Then on Sunday evening, Dundee were in Kirkcaldy as they faced-off with their biggest rivals, Fife Flyers and the Stars rounded off the group stage with a fifth victory from six games.
The 4-3 victory would be the fourth time that the Stars had won 4-3 away to Fife and the eighth time that they had won the road game by a single goal in the EIHL era.
The Tayside team also had their first mid-week game of the new season last Thursday as they played the Cardiff Devils on the road.
Omar Pacha’s men were leading the game on four different occasions but a third period surge by the Elite League Playoff champions saw them claw back from 5-3 down to win 8-6.
Dundee had four different scorers on Thursday and it was only the second time that the Stars have scored six in Wales, after losing 7-6 in the 2015/16 campaign.
With 14 goals scored in the last three games, there are plenty of players who have racked up points and have put together point streaks.
Egils Kalns leads the Stars in points from the last three matches with five.
Meanwhile, Kevin Dufour has netted four goals and Matt Marquardt, Craig Gans and Justin Maylan also have four points each in the last seven days.
Whereas, Kris Inglis and Shawn Boutin have three from the previous three matches and Drydn Dow has four points from the last two games.
Finally, Elgin Pearce and Jagger Dirk both have three points each from the prior two games.
Moving into this weekend’s game, the Stars have just the single match to play and it is on Sunday against Sheffield Steelers.
The two sides have already met once this season and Sheffield were again the visitors but they were the happier of the two sides after leaving the Dundee Ice Arena with two points.
Aaron Fox’s men were leading 4-1 but after hitting penalty trouble, the Stars pulled it back to 4-4 before the game was forced into overtime with the score tied at 5-5.
Michael Davies netted in the extra period to nick the extra point for the Steelers but there were many positives for the Stars, despite the result.
Dundee had some success on the powerplay, as they scored on four of eight attempts and killed off all three of Sheffield’s man advantages.
Both Anthony Beauregard and Pearce collected three points in the game against the Yorkshire club and the Stars out-shot their opponents 33-31.
Dundee’s goals were scored by, Beauregard, Maylan (2), Jordan Cownie and Kalns, while the Steelers ones came through Tanner Eberle (2), John Armstrong, Jonas Liwing, Eric Meland and Davies.
Face off time for this Sunday’s home game against Sheffield will face-off 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.
