TRADE-MART DUNDEE STARS 1 GUILDFORD FLAMES 3
A shortbenched Trade-Mart Dundee Stars were beaten 3-1 on Sunday night by Guildford Flames at home as they fell behind in the opening period and were unable to find a way back into the match.
By Kris Smith
The Stars were missing four of their import forwards through injury as forward, Jake Elmer joined Alex Tonge, Kameron Kielly and Brogan O’Brien on the sidelines and they soon found themselves a goal behind as the Flames came out swinging.
Guildford piled on the pressure early and would convert on the first powerplay of the night as Daniel Tedesco fired past Jarrett Fiske on six mintues, ending Zach Tsekos’ time in the penalty box.
Then just two minutes later, Joshua Waller would pounce on a mistake by Craig Moore in the Guildford end and he broke forward before squaring a pass to Ethan Strang, who turned home a second past Fiske.
Dundee were struggling to find a way back into the match but did create a short spell on pressure and almost found their first goal of the night if not for some excellent goaltending from Jake Kupsky.
The Flames would then add a third goal in the 18th minute as Matt Alvaro tipped the puck past Fiske from point blank range and that sent the Taysiders into the first break 3-0 behind.
In the second period, both teams were battling hard as they pushed for the next goal but their would be no scoring for the next 20 minutes, despsite the Stars having two more chances on the powerplay.
In the third stanza, Dundee started to find their feet and began pushing hard for a breakthrough but Kupsky would still deny all of their efforts and Marc LeFebvre’s men would constantly have their pressure on the Flames interrupted by penalties.
The Stars would kill off three penalties in the final period but also had two powerplay chances of their own and finally broke the deadlock with 59 seconds left on the clock as Jonathan McBean deflected the puck past Kupsky, whilst Guildford’s Travis Brown was in the box for delay of game.
The final buzzer brought an end to a tough night for Dundee as they would go pointless on the weekend after having difficulty scoring and battling with injuries but they now have a full week to rest up and recover before preparing for a visit from Coventry Blaze next Saturday and a road game against Sheffield Steelers on a Sunday.
Man of the Match
Dundee: #26 Cole MacDonald
Guildford: #8 Ryan Tait
Goals
1st:
0-1 Daniel Tedesco (Unassisted) 06:15 PPG
0-2 Ethan Strang (Joshua Waller) 07:41
0-3 Matt Alvaro (Michael Crocock, Charlie Dodero) 17:41
2nd:
3rd:
1-3 Jonathan McBean (Domenic Alberga, Zach Tsekos) 59:01 PPG
All images: Derek Black.
