By Kris Smith
Stars are looking to make it a four-point weekend and four straight wins over their arch rivals, Fife Flyers as they travel to Kirkcaldy this evening.
The Kitmart Dundee Stars are expected to have all players available again, while Fife Flyers could still be missing some youngsters as well as the indefinitely injured Chase Schaber.
Stars fans got behind their team last night after head coach, Omar Pacha asked them to come together and #StandStrong to support their team to a much-needed win.
Early penalty troubles for Stars could have cost them but a solid defensive performance kept the Flyers out. Dundee Captain, Johan Andersson scored Stars first shorthanded goal of the season with a quick shot into the top left of Shane Owen’s goal. The home side began the second period better than the first, as Brian Hart tipped a shot past the Flyers goalie to double Dundee’s lead.
The game began to heat-up as Fife tried to unsettle Dundee but Stars kept their cool. Shortly after and whilst on a powerplay, Jordan Cownie was lurking around the net and bagged the third goal by knocking home a loose rebound. After that, Pacha’s men were shut down on the powerplay but were happy to see out the game and earn their first clean sheet.
Andersson and Drydn Dow each had two points in last night’s game, whilst Hart extended his points scoring streak to five games.
Last night’s win moved Stars off the bottom of the Elite League table and with the right results tonight, they can close the gap on Manchester Storm. Fife dropped down to fourth place after their fourth straight loss.
Scoring goals is something that has come slowly for Stars but forward, Brian Hart knows his teammates hard work will pay off. He said: “We have obviously struggled to score goals recently and I believe the work we have been putting into practice the last few weeks will change that.
“I strongly believe we are much better than we have been performing recently and know we will turn it around soon.
“We need to play a full 60 mins and definitely improve our starts, we have trailed to many games after the first few shifts.”
Looking back to what they did well in their last two victories over Fife, Hart said “We shot the puck with bodies at the net and good things happened, so we need to get back to a simplified game.”
Tonight’s game at the Fife Ice Arena faces-off at 6:30pm.
