By Kris Smith
The Stars have lost just one of their last seven games and have clawed their way up the standings to now be just three points off the top after 11 games, where there is only a one-point gap between them and the Storm.
Tonight will be the third meeting between Dundee and Manchester this season with both teams claiming a home victory each.
Back at the end of September, the Tayside team were edged out 4-2 in Manchester before 24 hours later, defeating the Storm 3-2 after a shootout in Dundee.
Jonathan McBean and Anthony Rinaldi found the net down in Altrincham as Dallas Ehrhardt, Stephen Johnson (2) and Andreas Heier powered the Storm onto victory.
Then in Dundee, James Phelan, Drydn Dow and Ryan Valentini were on target for the Stars whilst Johnny Corneil and Tyler Hinam netted for Matt Ginn’s men.
Marc LeFebvre’s side come into the massive clash on a four-game winning streak as they secured another four-point weekend, last week with a pair of victories over Guildford Flames, beating them 5-4 and then 4-3 after a shootout.
Meanwhile, Manchester were 4-2 victors over the faltering Belfast Giants at home last Sunday as they also came back from being 2-0 down.
The Stars are set to be without only defenseman, Kris Inglis as his upper-body injury keeps him out of action this weekend, with a road trip to face Coventry Blaze on Saturday, also on the schedule.
Speaking before tonight’s important game, Stars Head Coach, LeFebvre said: “We know it is a playoff type game as we are battling it out for third spot and obviously, we want to keep this run of good form going but we know we are in for a tough match up.
“We will take it one shift at a time, you can see from the results around the league that you have to play a full 60 minutes every night and some results have gone right down to the wire and I am sure tonight is not going to be any different.”
Addressing the huge support from the fans, LeFebvre added: “The fans are always important win or lose and we love their support no matter what.
“We have been playing well at home in the last couple of weeks and we want to continue that tonight for them.”
After scoring his first Stars goal last weekend, American forward, Tommy Parrottino is hoping to keep the goals coming and help the team extend their unbeaten streak.
He said: “Any time we get a nice team win and you can contribute to it, it is awesome and the whole team feels good.
“Once one falls in, hopefully a few more follow but going into tonight we are in a good mood, although we all know that there is still business to be done and that we can get ourselves up into third place, so it is a big game.
“We know that they have been playing well also but it does not really matter who we play, we want to win every game, especially at home.”
Face-off for tonight’s home game is at 7:30pm and you can purchase your tickets HERE!
All images: Derek Black.
