By Kris Smith
Stars take on Fife Flyers tonight in the final instalment of the ‘Auld Rivalry’ but Dundee will be looking to get back to winning ways.
A disappointing 7-3 loss in Coventry has decimated Dundee’s chances of making the post-season but a strong 5-2 win for Fife over Belfast Giants provided them with some key points as they look to improve their positioning in the Elite League standings.
Marc-Olivier Mimar, Lukas Lundvald and Cody Carlson were all on the scoresheet in Coventry last night, while Charlie Mosey (2), Shayne Stockton, Peter LeBlanc and Russ Moyer all netted for the Flyers in Northern Ireland.
Ricards Birzins will await a decision from the Department of Player Safety (DOPS) today, after he was given a misconduct penalty and minor for checking from behind. All misconduct penalties are automatically reviewed by DOPS and a decision if the penalty will be upgraded into a suspension will be announced before face-off.
Both teams have won five games each out of the ten times they have met this season and as both teams will be fighting for points to help improve their positioning in the league table, they will also be scrapping for bragging rights in the latest derby.
There have been may high-scoring matches between these sides all season long and despite Dundee’s playoff hopes being left crippled, the Stars players will still be hungry for a win in such an important game.
The key players to watch will be Fife’s Liam Heelis, Carlo Finucci and Chase Schaber. All three forwards are extremely dangerous around the net. While Jordan Marr put in a solid performance in Belfast last night, Andy Iles could return from injury and he is also capable of being a brick wall at the back for Todd Dutiaume’s team.
Also keep your eye on some of the players in blue shirts, as Lukas Lundvald, Jimmy Jensen and Brian Hart have all put a few goals into the Flyers net this season. The trio look like they may continue to do so as they all have found good form as of late. Travis Fullerton has been a key in securing many of Dundee’s wins in their playoff push and the Canadian produces multiple highlight reel saves every game.
Stars forward, Malcolm Gould says the team were “upbeat” coming into the weekend and he expects a “fast paced” game from their biggest rivals. He said: “Practice has been good all week, we are very upbeat and everyone is in a good mood and excited for the upcoming games.
“It’s going to be a hard fought fast paced game like every time we play them. We’re both playing for something, so we expect them to come ready to play.
“We all believe in each other and we are all determined to make the playoffs and we feel we have the team that can get into playoffs and make some noise.
Today’s game against Fife will start at 5pm.
