TRADE-MART DUNDEE STARS 7 MSC CORONA BRASOV 3
The Trade-Mart Dundee Stars secured their second win of the preseason and their first on home ice as they claimed a 7-3 victory of Romanian club, MSC Corona Brasov, on Saturday night.
By Kris Smith
The Stars had a full line-up on the ice for their first exhibition match of their international friendly weekend and the Wolves from Brasov were only icing without third goaltender, Patrik Polc and Canadian defenseman, Garrett Clarke.
Both teams made an energetic start to the game and after just over a minute of play, Dundee goaltender, Kevin Carr was called into action as he had to make a quick double save to keep Brasov from taking an early lead, as he stretched out his right leg pad twice to deny a pair of efforts.
At the other end, Dundonian forward, Jonathan McBean was then next to come close to opening the scoring as he saw his effort beat Alex Dubeau in the Brasov net before it bounced off the near-side post.
However, the 19-year-old would get a few more chances as he was then denied by the Canadian keeper in the 14th minute on a shot from between the face-off circles but he stuck with the play, collected his rebound and got another opportuntiy on the right side.
McBean circled with the puck out of the corner and fired a low shot that would bounce in off the far-side post, giving the Stars a well-deserved lead as they had begun dominating the play in the second half of the opening period.
Less than one minute later, Anthony Rinaldi then also bagged his first goal of preseason as he burst through the Wolves’ defences on a breakaway and he slammed on the break just in front of Dubeau before tucking the puck over the legs of the keeper, to make it 2-0.
Marc LeFebvre’s men continued to dominate the rest of the first session and picked up right where they left off, as Craig Garrigan extended the lead to three goals, after just 36 seconds of play in the second stanza.
Garrigan was first to reach the puck as it sprung out of the Dundee zone after Sebastien Piche mis-read a bounce off the boards and he rushed through on the Brasov goal with James Phelan in tow and Garrigan would drop a pass back for Phelan to hit first-time but that effort would be partially stopped by Dubeau.
The puck trickled through the goalie’s grasp and towards goal, before resting on the post and Garrigan then forced it back out in front for Johnny Walker to try and lift home but he would also be shutdown by a scrambling Dubeua, although he was unable to stop Garrigan from slipping the next rebound underneath him.
The home team then had the chance to make it a 4-0 game as the Wolves went straight onto the penalty kill from the restart as a poor line change saw them caught with six skaters on the ice.
However, it would be the Romanian visitors who capitalised on the situation as a quick breakout from their zone gave Owen Williams the opportunity to burst forward and go one-on-one with Carr, where he stuck a low shot into the left side, cutting the lead back down to two-goals after 22 minutes.
As the game approached the halfway mark, Brasov had struggled with penalties but did well to kill each one off as they were punished for four seperate offences in the middle period.
Although, Garrigan would be on hand again to extend the Stars lead back to three as he bagged his brace in the 29th minute by tucking home the rebound from Walker’s saved effort, after he tried to drag the puck around Dubeau.
The Wolves would again cut the lead back down to two goals as in the 34th minute, Matyas Kovacs rushed towards the Dundee goal and tipped a low shot up and over the shoulder of Carr to make it 4-2.
In the third period, Dave McQueen’s side came out swinging and quickly made it a one-goal game as Kovacs netted again on 43 minutes, this time he finished off a quick cross-goal pass from Judd Blackwater as the Romanians punished the Stars with another quick break.
LeFebvre needed a response from his team and they would give him one just four minutes later as Rinaldi then became the third player of the night to score a brace, as he sped forward with Ryan Valentini, who played Rinaldi in behind and he used a backhand finish to stick the puck high past Dubeau.
Dundee fianlly regained control of the game and began to accelerate away after defenseman, Kyle Pouncy made it 6-3 on 51 minutes by collecting Jake Elmer’s pass high in the zone and with some time and space, he was allowed to pick a way past the Brasov netminder.
Valentini then rounded off the scoring for the evening with the Stars seventh goal, 40 seconds later and it all came from a high press by the Canadian and he would strip the puck from a Brasov defender before lifting the puck past Dubeau.
The Stars started off their final weekend of preseason action in the perfect manner as they found scoring from up and down the line-up, stayed disciplined and showed their fans exactly what they are capable of.
Now, they have one final exhibition match against Tilburg Trappers tomorrow evening, who come to the DIA off the back of a closely fought game in Kirkcaldy, where it ended 3-1 to Fife Flyers.
Get your tickets for Sunday’s game against Tilburg HERE!
Man of the Match
Dundee: #15 Craig Garrigan
Brasov: #91 Matyas Kovacs
Goals
1st:
1-0 Jonathan McBean (Brendam Harms, Sean Allen) 13:49
2-0 Anthony Rinaldi (Ryan Valentini, Tommy Parrottino) 14:42
2nd:
3-0 Craig Garrigan (Johnny Walker, James Phelan) 20:36
3-1 Owen Williams (Radim Valchar) 21:56
4-1 Craig Garrigan (Johnny Walker, Drydn Dow) 28:56
4-2 Matyas Kovacs (Pavlo Borisenko, Radim Valchar) 33:46
3rd:
4-3 Matyas Kovacs (Judd Blackwater, Radim Valchar) 43:07
5-3 Anthony Rinaldi (Ryan Valentini) 47:05
6-3 Kyle Pouncy (Jake Elmer, Drydn Dow) 51:35
7-3 Ryan Valentini (Unassisted) 52:17
All images: Derek Black.
