By Kris Smith
The Stars stay in Dundee this weekend as they host Belfast tonight, before welcoming Sheffield Steelers on Sunday and the Stars are hungry to redeem themselves after a blowing a 4-1 lead, last weekend.
In their first weekend of all-league action, Dundee were beaten 6-2 by Nottingham Panthers on the road, before losing 5-4 in overtime at home to Manchester Storm and that result also provided their first point in the league.
Now, they host the Giants for the second time this season and are yet to prevail over Adam Keefe’s side in any of their previous two Challenge Cup games, however Dundee did take the Northern Irish club to overtime in Belfast, just two weeks ago.
They then also ran the Giants close the following day in Dundee as a 1-1 game with nine minutes to go, was won 4-1 by Belfast and they come to Tayside following back-to-back wins over Glasgow Clan, last week.
The Stars are also hoping to have the added boost of new signing, Ian Parker in the line-up for both of this weekend’s matches, as he awaits international clearance, but there could also be returns for some injured players, as they remain under day-to-day evaluation.
Looking ahead to the home double-header, Stars Head Coach, Jeff Mason said: “It is obviously a massive weekend for us, two very good teams are coming in to play, but they are teams I believe we can have success against.
“I thought that we deserved to win over in Belfast and against Sheffield, in the first period I thought we controlled the play very well.
“Those are two teams I know we can play with but we will have to have a full 60-minute effort up and down the line-up, but it is a big opportunity for us at home.
“Every team in the league has to travel, so when you have a weekend with no travel you have to take advantage of that.”
Stars forward, Elijiah Barriga, who was nominated for the Elite League’s Player of the Month for September then added: “It was tough last weekend but the boys here have a great attitude and we have just been getting back to work, seeing it as a new week and focusing on getting what we want out of this weekend with some new opportunities.
“We just have to play the game in small five-minute segments, take care of the puck, do the right things and make sure we are chipping pucks in behind their defence to get them turning.
“It is really important that we make sure we finish strong, we want to have a really good start to the league and the boys are excited for two nights in front of our great fans.”
Face-off for tonight’s home game against Belfast is at 7pm. Buy your tickets NOW!
