By Luke McGinnis
Last weekend, the Stars suffered a 6-1 defeat at home to the Glasgow Clan, followed by a 9-0 loss on the road to the Sheffield Steelers.
“We gave up two goals in both games within the first six minutes which isn’t ideal, and then you’re chasing the game — something that’s been happening to us way too often this season,” began head coach Marc LeFebvre.
“Despite the scorelines, we did some really good things at times during those games, but it’s about being consistent throughout our whole game. It’s about doing the little things and being engaged from the get-go. We can’t have one shift on followed by two bad shifts — it’s got to be consistent.”
The last time the two sides met in Coventry, Dundee skated away with a 5-4 overtime victory over the Blaze.
Bradley Schoonbaert, Matthew Boudens, Otto Nieminen and Kameron Kielly found the back of the net in regulation, before Justin Bean scored in overtime to secure the win.
Since then, however, the Blaze have been in stellar form, winning nine of their last ten games including a 3-2 victory over the Belfast Giants in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals.
Grant Mismash leads Coventry with 35 points in 35 games, and is riding a 10-game point streak that has seen him register 16 points across that span.
“We’ve won twice in Coventry already this season, and I think our guys are more comfortable on the North American-sized rink,” added LeFebvre.
“We know they’re a good team. Ever since we beat them in January, they’ve skyrocketed up the standings and collected points in every game since. It goes back to our consistency — we’ve got to find the positives and try to get two points in a building where we’ve already taken four this season.”
Dundee and Fife last met just under a month ago, when the Flyers claimed a 4-2 victory at the Fife Ice Arena.
Kameron Kielly and Spencer Naas scored for the Stars, while Fife received goals from David Booth, Ian Scheid and Logan Neilson.
The Flyers have struggled since, failing to pick up a point across their last six games and currently sit bottom of the EIHL standings.
Booth, who scored 11 goals in 11 games — including six against the Stars — has been ruled out for the remainder of the season with a lower-body injury, adding to Fife’s recent struggles.
“We need to get some wins for the home fans, especially against a rival like Fife. They want to climb off the bottom of the table themselves, while we want to close the gap as much as possible with 19 games left in the playoff standings.”
“Fife have some guys who can hurt you. They move the puck well and have some pretty good goaltending. It’s a rivalry game — we should be up for it no matter what the standings are. We’ve got to be ready to play,” concluded LeFebvre.
