NOTTINGHAM PANTHERS 5 TRADE-MART DUNDEE STARS 1

The Trade-Mar Dundee Stars suffered a heart-breaking defeat to Nottingham Panthers on Valentine’s Day as they went down 5-1 on the road.

By Kris Smith

The Stars regained defenseman, Elijah Vilio after he missed the last two games through illness but continued to be without first-choice keeper, Kevin Carr and that meant 21-year-old, Lucas Brine made back-t0-back starts.

Both teams got off to a good start as they found ways to get pucks on net and test both goalies early on but Dundee would then gain an early powerplay chance as former Star, Jordan Kelsall was called for a trip on Tommy Parrottino.

The Tayside team could not take an early lead however as they failed to capitalise on the man advantage and were made to rue their missedc chances when Logan Neilson beat Brine in close on 12 minutes.

Then six minutes later, Hugo Roy fired a low shot into the left corner to double the lead for the Panthers and send them 2-0 up heading into the first break, despite some testing attacks from Dundee.

In the second session, Alexander Lunsjo shot across goal and found the left side of the net inside 24 minutes, to make it 3-0 as the Stars struggled to find a way back and Otto Nieminen would extend the home side’s advantage to 4-0 in the 35th minute as he tipped Myles McGurty’s effort past Brine.

Despite the Panthers killer offensive production, Rok Stojanovic was doing well to keep his side ahead as he made a number of crucial stops to keep the Stars out.

Marc LeFebvre’s men then lost a fifth goal in the 46th minute as Didrik Henbrant skated his way in on goal and placed his shot past Brine via the underside of the crossbar.

The Stars did finally get off the mark in the 52nd minute as Jake Elmer buried his effort past a sprawling Stojanovic after he denied a number of shots in the build up.

Dundee failed to cash-in on two more powerplay’s during the final period and the score would end 5-1, leaving the Stars five games without a win and only two days to prepare for a trip to Manchester Storm on Saturday, before hosting Cardiff Devils on Sunday.