FIFE FLYERS 4 TRADE-MART DUNDEE STARS 0
The Trade-Mart Dundee Stars made the short trip across the River Tay on Saturday night for their final road game of the season and they would face their local rivals, Fife Flyers in a game that was important to both teams.
By Kris Smith
The Stars were icing without two-way forwards, Jonathan McBean and Ben Brown, whilst Swedish winger, Romans Semjonovs remained out through injury.
The first period would be a quiet affair with the action only beginning to come to life in the final few minutes of the opening stanza as the Flyers took three penalties in three minutes, giving Dundee an extended chance on the powerplay.
Although, Shane Owen and the Fife defence stood firm to leave the game still scoreless after 20 minutes, but the Stars would start the second session with just less than a minute remaining on their final man advantage and again would continue to be frustrated by the hosts.
Dundee’s Philippe Sanche then had the best opportunity to open the scoring just before the halfway-mark, with a two-man breakaway after Fife’s Christian Hausinger missed a pass that sent the two Stars through on goal.
Sanche and teammate, Elijiah Barriga worked the puck between them from side-to-side, forcing Fife netminder, Shane Owen to work and they had the Canadian down and beat when Sanche pulled the trigger, but his shot would be turned away by the outside of the crossbar.
At the other end, the Flyers then capitalised on their chances, scoring twice in 49 seconds as Mikael Johansson broke the stalemate when he was left unmarked on the left side where Janne Kivilahti’s pass found him with a wide-open net to score into, on 33 minutes.
Then from the restart, the Kirkcaldy side burst forward again and former Star, Dillon Lawrence doubled the lead with a quick wrist shot past Brython Preece.
Todd Dutiaume’s men would extend their lead to three goals before the end of the second period as Zach Phillips joined in on the scoring in the 38th minute with a powerplay goal.
The Flyers were on a five-minute powerplay after Dundee’s Cole Fraser was ejected from the game for fighting an unwilling opponent, as he went after Fife captain, Jonas Emmerdahl for a bad hit on Stars captain, Drydn Dow earlier in the match.
In the third period, the home team were quick to add a fourth goal as Johansson doubled up with his second of the night, inside 43 minutes and this time he went in close on Preece before finishing just underneath the dropping pads of the Welsh goalie.
The Stars continued to try and prevent the shutout but Owen’s fine form meant they would be blanked on the night and now they must face the recently crowned Elite League Champions, Belfast Giants at the DIA on Sunday.
Man of the Match
Dundee: #44 Brython Preece
Fife: #50 Shane Owen
Goals
1st :
2nd:
1-0 Mikael Johansson (Janne Kivilahti, Zach Phillips) 33:05
2-0 Dillon Lawrence (Kamerin Nault, Janne Laakkonen) 33:54
3-0 Zach Phillips (Kamerin Nault) 37:40 PPG
3rd:
4-0 Mikael Johansson (Unassisted) 42:29
All images: Flyers Images.
