By Luke McGinnis
Marc LeFebvre’s men are coming off a midweek clash with the Nottingham Panthers, where they fell 5-1 on the road.
“I don’t think the scoreline reflects how we played. We worked hard tonight but we didn’t capitalise on our opportunities,” said LeFebvre post-game. “It was 2-1 in the second period and we had plenty of Grade-A scoring chances, but then we gave up two goals in the last two minutes of the third period and that’s all she wrote.
“Our work ethic was there tonight, we played like pros and we didn’t give up on the game. But when you don’t punish teams and get timely scoring, it gets flipped on its head and goes against you.”
Manchester have won three of the four meetings between the Stars and Storm so far this season, with two of those victories coming in overtime or a shootout. Dundee claimed the most recent encounter, however, with a 3-2 overtime victory at home just over a month ago.
“There’s always a team with a lower budget that sneaks into the top five every year, and it happens to be their turn this year.
“They’ve had some outstanding goaltending all season, but we’ve beaten these guys enough times that we should know how to play them. We’ve gone down there twice, lost once in overtime and the other in a shootout, so we’ve picked up a few points, but it would be nice to pick up two points in that building.”
Spencer Naas leads Dundee in scoring against the Storm so far this season with four points, followed by Ben Almquist on three and Keanu Yamamoto, Bradley Schoonbaert, Justin Bean and Otto Nieminen on two apiece.
Meanwhile, Joseph Nardi has registered five points against the Stars, with Loren Ulett on four and Gary Haden, Dennis Busby and Harrison Caines each on three.
Since their last meeting with Dundee, Manchester have lost six of their last eight games, with four of those defeats coming in overtime. Gary Haden leads the Storm offensively with 37 points in 41 games, while Harrison Caines recently returned to the lineup and is riding a four-game point streak.
“Manchester work extremely hard. That’s a team with a lot of guys who have played together for a long time and they know how to play. Obviously, [Cam] Critchlow is doing a good job in his first year as a coach there — he knows the club inside and out and has his guys dialled in — so we know it’s going to be a tough challenge in that building,” concluded LeFebvre.
