By Kris Smith
The Stars continued to have a full line-up available and went up against a Panthers side, who had only five defensemen as Jake Ryczek was missing from their line-up.
However, that did not stop the visitors from racing into an early lead as with less than a minute played, Alexander Lunsjo put the puck in the back of the Dundee net, after he finished off a quick cross-goal pass from Mathieu Lemay.
Marc LeFebvre’s men recieved a very early wake-up call and went straight back out there in search of an equaliser, which they would finally be rewarded with in the fifth minute.
The Stars had been testing the Panthers’ defence and when they had them trapped in their own end, Canadian Jake Elmer ripped a low shot towards goal that would be deflected by forward, Josh Brittain and his touch sent it past goalie, Mike Robinson to make it an even game.
Both teams would then have chances to take the lead on the powerplay as each side were punished twice in the opening period and whilst both clubs powerplay units were faltering, Dundee still had a majority of their second penalty to kill off, heading into the second session.
The home team made it through the remainder of the delay of game call against Johnson but they would fall behind again as Nottingham’s Adam Johnson struck on 26 minutes to restore the English outfits lead.
Hugo Roy would win the face-off for the Panthers and send the puck straight back for Johnson to step into and his first-time effort found the top corner of Kevin Carr’s net.
Three minutes later, Otto Nieminen would cash in on a bit of misfortune for the Stars as after making a number of saves, Carr was unable to grasp the Finn’s shot and it dropped into his net.
The Tayside team would find a way to respond and cut the lead back down to one goal as Spencer Naas redirected Sean Allen’s shot past Robinson to make it 3-2 on 32 minutes.
Although, the Panthers were hungry for more and straight from the restart, Nieminen would go close to getting a second goal but Carr would spread out to deny him on the breakaway.
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All images: Derek Black.
