By Luke McGinnis
Marc LeFebvre’s men are coming off a tough weekend against the Guildford Flames, first falling 3-1 in Dundee on Friday before being edged 4-3 on the road 48 hours later.
“I thought they were both winnable games,” began LeFebvre. “Friday, we went through the motions and could’ve caught them sleeping a little bit. They want to play a run-and-gun style, and we just couldn’t capitalise on our chances.
“Sunday, I thought we fought hard but just fell a little short, which has kind of been our season. I can’t fault the effort — we were in it the whole way and just didn’t have that little bit extra in the third period.”
Dundee and Cardiff have met four times so far this season, with the Devils winning the last three after the Stars claimed the first encounter in November.
Jonathan McBean and Bradley Schoonbaert have both scored twice against Cardiff this season, while Spencer Naas leads the Stars with four points.
Meanwhile, Josh MacDonald leads the Devils with seven points, including four goals, followed by Joey Martin, Kristoff Kontos, Cole Sanford and Brett Perlini on four.
Paul Thompson’s squad have struggled recently, losing six of their last ten games, but are coming off a 7–2 victory over the recently crowned Challenge Cup champions, the Nottingham Panthers. Joey Martin leads his side with 43 points and is riding a four game point streak, as is Kristoff Kontos and Josh MacDonald.
“Cardiff are a physical team, we know that,” added LeFebvre. “I think they know they won’t win the league, but at the same time they want to finish within the top two and ready themselves for the playoffs.”
“We’ve played them enough times to know what to expect. They want to get into scrums and make it physical. It’s a tough rink to play in, especially when the crowd gets loud, so the biggest thing for us is coming out strong and nullifying that.”
