By Kris Smith
Glasgow Clan 2 Dundee Stars 3 (SO)
After last weekend’s win, Dundee now lead the series between the Scottish sides 5-2 after eight games (with one draw) and the overall score now stands at 29-20 in favour of Pacha’s team.
Also, the Stars now have a 2-2 record in Braehead in this campaign and their record against Scottish teams in league action moved to 6-2 this season.
Centerman, Anthony Beauregard kept his title as the team’s top scorer against Glasgow, as he netted his sixth goal against the Purple Army to give Dundee a 2-1 lead in the second period.
Another shootout success means that Dundee have now won two out of three penalty contests they have been involved in this year and all three have concluded inside the standard five shots.
Forward, Egils Kalns scored the Tayside team’s first of the night and their opening penalty and that keeps him at a 100 per cent record for penalty shots with his last two efforts finding the twine.
Whereas, goaltender Alex Leclerc has now stopped 10~15 out of the penalties he has faced.
The two teams meet again in March.
Point Leaders
There has been little change to the Stars stats leaders as the current chart-toppers boosted their numbers.
Dufour is still the highest goal scorer with now 30 for the season and the top point scorer with 49 in 48 games.
Now that the Canadian is just one off 50 points, he will be the first player to reach that milestone this season for the Stars.
Beauregard netted his 20 goal of the year and still leads the side in assists with 28 and he, Dufour and Matt Marquardt are now all tied with three game-winning-goals each after Dufour’s shootout winner last Saturday.
Leclerc also picked up his 20th win of season on Saturday as he made 27 saves.
Point Streaks
There are three players who go into Kirkcaldy on Saturday carrying a point-streak against Scottish clubs and Brett Stovin has the longest with five points in the last four games.
While, Kevin Dufour has six from the previous three matches with the Clan and Flyers and Beauregard has a point per game over the last two.
Week 23
In week 23, the Stars visit Fife Flyers for the final time in the regular season before they host Guildford Flames, also for the last time in the league campaign.
Fife Flyers
The Stars go to Kirkcaldy on Saturday with four wins from their six contests with the Flyers this season and they can claim their first ever clean sweep of wins in Fife.
Marquardt is Dundee’s top point scorer in Fife with two goals and four assists, but Egils Kalns is only one point behind him after assisting five times in three matches.
Meanwhile, Leclerc has posted a save percentage of 95.33 per cent after stopping 102 of 107 shots he has faced in the Fife Ice Arena, he also has a goals against average of 1.67.
Guildford Flames
On Sunday, the Flames from surrey return to Tayside and are aiming to claw some ground back after letting the Stars win three of the first four meetings between the two sides this season.
Another win for Dundee would mean they have won all three regular season home games against Guildford for the first time since the Flames joined the Elite League in 2017.
Dundee’s top scorer verse Guildford this season is a three-way tie between Marquardt (3+3), Dufour (4+2) and Beauregard (1+5) as each have collected six points against Paul Dixon’s men.
The Stars also lead the overall scoring in their series against the Flames by 18 goals to 15 and they have scored on one in every four powerplay chances, whilst stopping 82 per cent of Guildford’s man advantages.
Saturday’s match in Fife will face-off at 7:15pm and Sunday’s home game against Guildford will start at 5pm.
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.