By Kris Smith
The Stars visit Coventry with a win and loss already under their belt in the SkyDome Arena this season, after winning 5-3 on their first trip but then were beaten 4-2 on their most recent outing.
In their last meeting with the Blaze, they suffered a 2-1 overtime defeat at home in Scotland as Brent Beaudoin’s second period opener was cancelled out by Kobe Roth in the third period and Johnny Curran would net the winner for Danny Stewart’s side in extra time.
Currently four-points separate Dundee and Coventry, with the West Midlands club in fifth and the Stars chasing them in sixth, but the teams below have all moved in closer and now only five points separate them from Nottingham Panthers in 10th.
Stars captain, Drydn Dow and Spencer Naas lead the team in scoring against Coventry with a goal and three assists each, whilst Ian McNulty has bagged six assists and one goal against Dundee.
The Stars have been boosted by the arrival of Canadian defenseman, Xavier Pouliot to bolster their defensive options ahead of this weekend after he flew into Tayside earlier this week and could make his debut tonight in Coventry.
Looking ahead to the weekend’s games, Stars Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre said: “Coventry are a team that we want to catch in the standings and we want to end this run of form that we have been on over the last few weeks, and get back into the win column.
“With 15 games to go, we have to maximise our points and make sure we get ourselves in the top eight, we know that and that is the task at hand.
“This run of form we had lately, it is not from lack of effort, we are just finding ways to lose those games and there is five or six of those seven games that we have been in.
“They have been tight and close, and could have gone either way, so we just have to find a way to flip those over and get the victories.”
He continued: “This weekend, we need to play playoff style hockey and no matter if it is a positive thing or a negative thing that happens to us, we just have to keep on moving forward and take it shift-by-shift.”
The Canadian coach also shared a few words on his new addition Pouliot, after his first few days with the team and he added: “His first couple of practices have been good, he moves well and moves the puck well also.
“So, it really is going to provide that internal competition within our line-up for who is coming in and going out for every game.”
Xavier also commented: “It has been great. At first, I thought the jetlag was going to hit me harder but I quickly got into a good rhythm with the sleep schedules and I feeling really good right now and I am excited to get things going.
“I feel like our team is really fast and you can see the speed is up a level here from where I played in the East Coast but I played on the bigger ice before in college, so I am used to playing on the Olympic size rink.”
Face-off for tonight’s game in Coventry is at 7pm.
All images: Scott Wiggins.
