By Kris Smith
Dundee’s only goal scorer last week, Elgin Pearce is the first player to score in each of the first three competitive games since Jimmy Jensen in the 2017-18 season.
Pearce is also the first Stars player to win the Elite League’s Player of the Week award in the first week of the season.
The earliest winner for Dundee before Pearce was Doug Clarkson in late September of the 2015-16 season.
The Canadian forward spent a season in the City of Discovery after joining from the Caridff Devils.
Last weekend’s games also broke one record that Stars fans hoped would stay unbroken.
Sunday’s 2-0 loss to Fife Flyers was the first time that Fife have shutout Dundee at the Dundee Ice Arena in the EIHL era.
It also drew the Flyers level on five shutouts each in all EIHL seasons, with the other four of them coming at home for Todd Dutiaume’s side.
Dundee have one shutout in Kirkcaldy and four at home.
Another record broken by the Stars this week was that they had 42 shots on goal against Fife on Sunday.
That is the highest amount of shots put on target by Stars against Fife in a single match during Omar Pacha’s tenure but unfortunately, netminder Adam Morrison was in good form to stop them all.
Even though they recorded a loss, the Stars still sit top of Group A in the Challenge Cup.
Although, the defeat on Saturday in Manchester handed the Storm the overall lead in games won between Manchester and Dundee as they went 14-13 ahead.
There was little change to the Stars statistics leaders as Kevin Dufour (+5) still tops the plus/minus table with Jagger Dirk (+4), Jordan Cownie (+4) and Anthony Beauregard (+4) all just behind.
Pearce still leads the team in goals and points with four goals and two assists for six points.
Meanwhile, Dufour, Cownie, Shawn Boutin, Matt Marquardt and Justin Maylan are all tied for the most assists with three each and in the nets, Alex Leclerc is still sitting above 90 per cent in shots stopped after two tight games.
Leclerc faced 54 shots last weekend and including his two Challenge Cup games, he now has a save percentage of 92.91 per cent.
However, after conceding four goals last weekend, the Canadian’s overall goals against average is now down to 2.28 per game.
Now, for new fans or fans who didn’t know – the empty net goal scored by Fife does not count as a goal against because Leclerc was not on the ice and did not have a chance to make a save.
However, it does still affect his save percentage as the shot on goal is still counted.
Next up for Omar Pacha’s men is a double home header against the two biggest English sides in the league.
On Saturday the Nottingham Panthers travel to Tayside and Dundee will be keen to improve on the last campaign where they had their most successful EIHL season against the Panthers.
With two wins on the road and one at home, the Stars went 3-3 against the Nottinghamshire club, who finished third.
Dundee also beat this Sunday’s opposition for the first time in their Elite League history last year as they won 6-3 in Sheffield before beating the Steelers 6-1 at home the following night.
Now they have a chance to continue that win streak against the Yorkshiremen.
Face off times for this weekend’s pair of home games are 7pm on Saturday and 5pm on Sunday.
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.
