By Kris Smith
Dundee currently occupies seventh in the league standings with eight points from their first nine matches whilst Tom Coolen’s side sit bottom in 10th with four points from their opening 10 fixtures.
The Stars record against the Flyers reads three wins from four competitive games so far this year with 7-0 and 7-2 victories in their last two meetings but Fife did claim a 4-1 victory in Kirkcaldy before those matches.
Brett Gravelle, Domenic Alberga and Zach Tsekos have all scored three goals each against the Flyers this season and Gravelle netted all three in the last two meetings.
In the most recent clash where Dundee were 7-2 winners, Jonathan McBean (2), Alex Tonge, Jake Elmer, Zach Tsekos (2) and Gravelle all scored past Shane Owen in the Fife goal, whilst Phelix Martineau and Ryan Foss were on target for the Kirkcaldy club.
The Stars come into tonight’s game off the back of two closely contested games this week as a 6-4 home defeat to Cardiff Devils on Wednesday came before a 2-1 loss in Glasgow against the Clan in Dundee’s final Challenge Cup fixture of the season.
Jake Elmer would net a 32-minute hat-trick on Wednesday and Philippe Sanche scored his second goal for the club since returning to Tayside, before Gravelle bagged the opener and the Stars only goal of the game on Friday night in Braehead.
Meanwhile, the Flyers were in action last night and were beaten 5-4 in overtime by Glasgow and had held the lead twice before coming back from a goal down twice to tie the game but they managed to force overtime with only 27 seconds left on the clock, before the Clan claimed the victory in extra time.
Maxim Musorov, Foss, Martineau and Lucas Chiodo were all on target for Fife, whilst Owen backstopped but the Flyers were unable to snap their losing streak and it extended to 11 games, with their last two defeats coming outside of regulation time.
Looking ahead to tonight’s Tayside Derby, Stars Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre said: “Sunday will be a huge game against Fife, it is our first league game against them and we want to continue moving up the table.
“If we beat Fife, then that will be two wins out of three in the league in one week after beating Coventry and losing to Cardiff, so that is a good week for us.”
Face-off for tonight’s home game is at 5pm.
All images: Derek Black.
