By Kris Smith
To start off week 15 of our ‘Look Back’ series, we will be taking you back to the 2015-2016 campaign, which was the club’s 15th year in existence and their sixth season of competing in the Elite League.
Also, there was a new man leading the team from bench as Marc LeFebvre came in to replace Jeff Hutchins.
Over the course of that season, the Stars played a total of 52 Elite League games and regained their status as a playoff team with a seventh place finish.
In the 2015-2016 campaign, the Elite League was again contested by ten teams but after the collapse of the Hull Stingrays, a new franchise was added to the league and it also brought the return of an old British hockey icon.
The Manchester Storm joined the EIHL but that season’s league champions would be Sheffield Steelers for a second consecutive year, as they were crowned league champions, after winning 72 points, which was only 17 points more than Dundee collected.
The Stars were the second lowest ranked Scottish club that season, with Braehead Clan achieving a third place finish, with 67 points but Fife Flyers just topped the Stars as the two teams tied on points but the Kirkcaldy club had more regulation wins and that meant they were awarded sixth place.
There was then a 30 point difference between Dundee and Edinburgh, who propped up the league.
After the regular seasons had ended, Dundee had a record of 22-19-11 (wins-losses-overtime losses) and they scored 200 goals and conceded 196 over the 52 fixtures.
For fourth time in the club’s EIHL history, they secured a berth in the playoffs but again their progression would be halted at the Quarter-Finals stage.
Despite causing a massive upset in the first leg, which was in Wales and saw the Stars lead the Cardiff Devils 4-2, that result was overturned the following night as Andrew Lord’s men emerged 4-2 winners at the DIA.
Nottingham Panthers went on to win the post-season tournament and beat the defending champions, Coventry Blaze in the Final.
The Tayside team also competed in the Elite League’s Challenge Cup again and qualified for the knockout stages for the third straight season.
The Stars came third in Group A, with nine points from eight matches and finished only behind, Braehead (11 points) and Belfast Giants (13 points).
Dundee had four wins and four losses in Group A and they scored 21 goals, but conceded 23 times.
Although, the Stars were again eliminated at the Quarter-Finals stage and it was again by the Devils on won 10-6 on aggregate but went on to lose to the Panthers in the Challenge Cup Final.
That season’s top point was Canadian-born Brit, Lou Dickenson, who put up 68 points in 64 games but winger Bobby Chaumont led the team in goals with 32 from 64 appearances.
Also, forward, Curtis Leinweber set-up the most goals, with 43 assists in the same amount of matches but the most penalised player on that season’s squad was Justin Faryna, who spent 176 minutes of his 62 games in the sin bin.
In the 2015-2016 season, the team had three active netminders in Vlastimil Lakosil, Trevor Koenig and Craig Holland.
Koenig was signed in the January after Lakosil departed the club mid-season but both keepers had a strong defence in front of them with players such as; Kevin hart, Craig Moore, Martins Porejs, Sam McCluskey and Jason Gray in front of them.
Whereas, the Stars offence was packed full of creative and goalscoring players like; Brett Switzer, Mikael Lidhammar, Faryna, Chaumont, Scott Brannon, John Dolan and Riley Wetmore.
Next we will be bringing you a look back at one Star Player from the 2015-2016 season and that will be released Wednesday at 12pm!
If you want to be a part of the historic 20th Dundee Stars season then you can buy your season tickets by contacting [email protected]
