By Kris Smith
To start off week 16 of our ‘Look Back’ series, we will be taking you back to the 2016-2017 campaign, which was the club’s 16th year in existence and their seventh season of competing in the Elite League.
Over the course of that season, the Stars played a total of 52 Elite League games and retained their status as a playoff team with a second consecutive seventh place finish.
In the 2016-2017 campaign, the Elite League was again contested by the same ten teams and the Cardiff Devils were the league champions for that season after winning 81 points, which was 35 points more than Dundee collected.
The Stars were the second lowest ranked Scottish club that season, with Braehead Clan achieving a fifth place finish, with 57 points and Fife Flyers coming in sixth on 53 points.
There was then an 11 point difference between Dundee and Edinburgh, who again propped up the league.
After the regular seasons had ended, Dundee had a record of 20-26-6 (wins-losses-overtime losses) and they scored 162 goals and conceded 183 over the 52 fixtures.
For fifth time in the club’s EIHL history, they secured a berth in the playoffs but for the first time, the Stars made it to the Final Four Weekend in Nottingham.
In the Quarter-Finals, Dundee coasted past the Clan and beat them 6-1 across two legs.
The first match was held at the Dundee Ice Arena and after claiming a 3-1 win, the Stars followed it up with a 3-0 victory in Braehead.
Then, in their first playoff match at the National Ice Center, Marc LeFebvre’s men had led the league winning, Cardiff Devils side 2-0 before a disappointing collapse in the third period resulted in a 4-2 defeat.
Although, Andrew Lord’s Devils went on to lose in the Final against Sheffield Steelers but the Stars were also involved in more knockout hockey, as the Tayside team also competed in the Elite League’s Challenge Cup again and qualified for the knockout stages for the fourth straight season.
The Stars came second in Group A, with 11 points from eight matches and finished only behind, Belfast Giants, who amassed 13 points.
Dundee had five wins and three losses in Group A and they scored 32 goals, but conceded 23 times.
Although, the Stars were again eliminated at the Quarter-Finals stage and for back-to-back seasons, it was by the Devils who won 8-3 on aggregate and they would go on to lift the Cup after beating the Steelers in the Final.
That season’s top point was American forward, Vinny Scarsella, who put up 91 points in 65 games and the right winger also had the most goals and assists on the team, as he lit the lamp 26 times and created 65 more goals.
Also, for a second year running, the most penalised player on the team was Justin Faryna, who spent 110 minutes of his 56 games in the sin bin.
In the 2016-2017 season, the team was again led by Marc LeFebvre and the Head Coach had two active netminders in Joe Fallon and Craig Holland.
Also, the Stars blueline was manned by a lot of big bodies and there were many tough defenders to protect the team, such as; Craig Cescon, Joey de Concilys, Kevin Hart, Kris Inglis, Craig Moore and Felix-Antoine Poulin.
Whereas, the Stars offence was packed full of creative and goalscoring players like; Brett Switzer, Mikael Lidhammar, Faryna, Kevin Bruijsten, Scott Brannon, Scarsella, Cale Tanaka and Matt White.
Next we will be bringing you a look back at one Star Player from the 2016-2017 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]
