By Kris Smith
With Team GB playing three matches this weekend and the Elite League on a short-break over the weekend, the Stars and Flyers have filled the gaps in their calendar with two friendly contests to keep each side in top condition for their massive playoff pushes down the final two months of the season.
Saturday night sees Dundee play hosts and they will wear their limited-edition Valentines jerseys, which were designed in collaboration with Dundee-based designer clothing brand,Postal.
Then on the Sunday, Fife will wear their own bespoke jerseys when they welcome the Stars to the Fife Ice Arena.
The Flyers also have a Challenge Cup Semi-Final on the horizon the following Wednesday as they take a 3-2 lead down to Sheffield Steelers in the second leg but Todd Dutiaume’s men were missing four-players from their last outing.
Last Sunday, the Flyers were on the losing end of a 9-4 result away to Belfast Giants and had to play without the injured; James Spence, Jonas Emmerdahl, Mikael Johansson and Janne Laakkonen.
Meanwhile, the only absentee for Dundee was forward, Romans Semjonovs as he missed last week’s 3-1 win over Manchester Storm with a lower-body injury.
Stars Head Coach, Jeff Mason shared what he hopes his side can take from this weekend, commenting: “It is an opportunity for us to probably try a few different combinations and get some guys that have not had as much ice time this year, some more opportunities to get out there.
“It is also an opportunity for us to work on some new systems we have been using and obviously the idea is to get through the weekend unscathed in terms of injuries and then all our focus goes squarely on the run in we have coming up down the final part of this season.
“We are pretty confident that if we can find a way to consistently put it together night in and night out then we have a good chance of going to the playoffs and trying to make some noise.”
“So, overall we just want to try and use this weekend as an opportunity to see a few different things we normally would not, and then hit the ground running next week.”
Face-off for Saturday’s game in Dundee is at 7pm andSunday’s match in Kirkcaldy will begin at 6pm.
