By Kris Smith
Sheffield Steelers 2 Dundee Stars 5
The Stars claimed only their second ever victory in Sheffield last Saturday as they powered past the Elite League pacesetters and it was also Omar Pacha’s second ever victory as a coach in the House of Steel.
That win means that Dundee now have a 1-3 record verse Aaron Fox’s men this year and his side have now lost four games on the bounce.
Although, the Yorkshire club still lead the overall series score 18-15, the Stars showed the depth in their scoring ability as they had five different lamp lighters.
Matt Marquardt netted his 20th goal of the season, Egils Kalns bagged his 12th, Anthony Beauregard scored number 21, Matt Carter fired home his ninth and Colton Kroeker hit 10 for the season.
The two sides will meet again in a double header on March 21 and 22, which is also the penultimate weekend of the season.
Statistic Leaders
A few players extended their leads in different categories of the statistic charts this week; such as Beauregard scoring his third shorthanded goal of the season, which is half of all shorthanded goals scored by the team in this campaign.
The Canadian centerman also bagged his fourth game-winning-goal of the year to make him the lone leader.
Netminder, Alex Leclerc also regained his place at the top of the Man of the Match column, the Canadian shot-stopper has been voted the Most Valuable Player 10 times this season.
Leclerc has also played the third highest amount of minutes in the league and cup this season, as he reached 3022 last weekend.
Point Streaks
Six players head into Week 25 on hot-streaks, Kevin Dufour and Kalns have the longest, which have lasted four games.
Dufour has five points but Kalns has scored in four straight matches and they are followed by Marquardt with four in two, then by Brett Stovin and Jagger Dirk with three in two and finally, Jordan Cownie has a point per game over the previous two.
Week 25
There is only one fixture for the Stars again this week the Stars will play host in the final Tayside Derby of the regular season.
Fife Flyers
Dundee bring a 4-3 record into the final meeting of the league campaign between the two bitter rivals but the Flyers won the last match over in Kirkcaldy.
Kalns scored the lone goal in a 4-1 defeat for Dundee in the last derby but the win for Todd Dutiaume’s side also tied the season score at 18-18.
A win for Omar Pacha’s men would give them the majority of victories over their arch enemies and after losing twice at home to Fife already this season, they could tie up their home record at 2-2.
Saturday’s home derby will face-off at 7pm and you can get your tickets for #OperationSellout HERE before they are gone!
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.
