By Kris Smith
The Stars started off with an exciting back and forth game as they went goal for goal with Belfast Giants for the first 30 minutes of the night as strikes from Craig Moore and Jonathan McBean drew the Taysiders level twice after Jordan Kawaguchi and Joe Cassetti had opened up leads for Adam Keefe’s side.
The Giants would then take a two-goal advantage into the third period after both Cassetti and Kawaguchi found the net again and in the final session, Mark Cooper would find a way past Jarrett Fiske in the Dundee net on two occasions to extend their lead to 6-2.
Jake Elmer then snatched a goal back for the Stars with a snappy and accurate finish past ex-NHL goaltender, Tom McCollum, who had been the Giants saving grace a number of times throughout the match, as he turned away 42 out of 45 shots on the night.
Ciaran Long would add a seventh goal for Belfast less than five minutes before full-time and that sealed the 7-3 victory for the Northern Irish club and set Marc LeFebvre’s men up for a must win home game against Glasgow on Sunday, to salvage their weekend.
Meanwhile the Clan were beaten 4-3 in Kirkcaldy, despite taking a 1-0 lead after only five minutes through Rylan Schwartz’s effort but Fife Flyers would battle back to storm 3-1 ahead.
Phelix Martineau, Lucas Chiodo and Michael Cichy all found a way past Landon Bow in the Clan goal to send the home team two-goals clear heading into the third period, with the last two coming on the powerplay.
Glasgow’s Nick Prkusic was able to beat Flyers netminder, Shane Owen to reduce the lead to one but Maxim Musorov would restore Fife’s two-goal cushion with what proved to be the game-winning-goal as Liam Finley scored with 30 seconds remaining to turn up the pressure.
Corey Neilson’s side also had two five minute powerplays in the third session that they failed to take advantage of as Fife’s Drake Pilon was given five minutes and a game penalty for interference and just as that expired, Daniel Krenzelok was then ejected for slew-footing.
Tonight, both Glasgow and Dundee will be hungry for a win to get their competitive seasons up and running but also to get themselves off the mark in Group A.
Two former Stars return to the DIA tonight as Chris McKay and Lucas Brine swapped blue, red and white for purple and black in the summer but, Brine is likely to be the back-up as he was last night for Clan, while McKay was on the second defensive pairing against Fife.
Reflecting on last night’s game, Stars Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre commented: “It was a tale of two halves.
“In the first 30 we were very good and we dominated their goalie, who made some very good saves and in the last 30, I thought we were just terrible.
“We stopped playing and just let them dictate, we made lots of little mistakes and it ends up in the back of our net.
“They are too good of a team every season to make silly mistakes against because they will make you pay and you see the result there at the end.”
Discussing how his side must respond tonight, he continued: “We have to go home, re-evaluate and you get ready for tomorrow.
“It is a brand-new game, 0-0 and a good chance to redeem ourselves, which is the one positive we can take out of tonight and that is hockey, you are only as good as your last game.
“So tomorrow a win would give us a split on the weekend and that is all you can really ask for.”
Defenseman turned forward, Craig Moore scored the first goal of the season in last night’s game and looking back on the match, he said: “It is nice obviously to get things started off and to trying to start the season off the right way but we did not get the result we wanted.
“We kind of ran out of steam and hurt ourselves in the end but ultimately we can take some positives out of that and that is what we have to do and focus on tomorrow now.”
Craig continued: “We know that every team in the league is better this year, us included, so I think we just have to take care of ourselves now, get some rest and do not dwell on last night.
“We can learn from our mistakes, we will watch some video and I am sure Marc will have plenty for us to look at and we need to come out with some good intensity and hopefully get a good start to get that pushback against Glasgow.”
Face-off for tonight’s home game is at 5pm. Buy tickets HERE!
Watch live at dundeestars.tv
