By Kris Smith
Canadian defenseman, Drydn Dow and Finnish forward, Timi Lahtinen first met in the 2020-2021 season at Slovakian Second Division club, HK Spisska Nova Ves and became playoff champions together, whilst most of the hockey world was shutdown.
Timi only moved to Slovakia in February of 2020 to join up with Dow and his teammates for their playoff push and throughs six regular season games, Lahtinen found the net four times, before posting 16 points (8G, 8A) in 15 playoff ties.
Meanwhile, Dow had 12 points (2G, 10A) in the regular season and added four (1G, 3A) more in the post-season.
Now the pair are playing together in Dundee and are in a position to win two playoff titles in consecutive seasons.
Discussing last season and the opportunity ahead of them this weekend. Timi said: “It is obviously a little bit different with the format here and how we only play once but it is important that we still play together as a team, as a unit.
“We must also play tight together in the defensive end and especially against one of the big teams like Belfast, but we have the right players and we are playing well right now.
“So, we are excited to show what we can do.”
Stars captain Dow then added: “It was actually a very similar situation, where in the regular season we did not finish as high as we thought we were going to and we had some big signings right at the end of the season, like Timi.
“Then we ended up making a big push and it was around the same time that we started streaking and winning lots of games and it is the same feeling here right now, where we are streaking at the right time,
“So, there is an exciting vibe in the room just now and we are looking forward to this weekend in Nottingham.”
Now in his third Elite League campaign, Drydn then explained what it will take to get the job done this weekend.
He said: “It is definitely a little different with it being just the one-game instead of the series, but you just have to make sure you stay with it.
“We cannot get too high or too low because stuff happens throughout the game, there are goals for and goals against, so you have to control your emotions the whole way.
“It is also important to stick with the gameplan, we know we can play against these top teams, we beat Cardiff, we beat Sheffield and we beat Belfast this year, so we know we can compete and we are just excited for another opportunity to show once again we can do it.”
