TRADE-MART DUNDEE STARS 7 FIFE FLYERS 2
The Trade-Mart Dundee Stars climbed back into a playoff spot with a huge Tayside Derby victory over Fife Flyers as they claimed a 7-2 win for back-to-back defeats of their cross-river rivals.
By Kris Smith
The Stars would find a way to get in front after only four minutes as Spencer Naas turned Brendan Harms’ pass up past Shane Owen to open the scoring but despite Dundee looking like doubling their lead quickly, the Flyers would capitalise on a mistake to draw level.
With a face-off in the Fife end, the home team won possession and the puck came back to defenseman, Xavier Pouliot who would fail to pick up possession and that allowed Kieran Craig to race in behind all alone, dispatching the puck past Jarret Fiske at his right post, on seven minutes.
Marc LeFebvre’s men then went onto the penalty kill as blueliner, Ben O’Connor was called for a slashing foul and the Flyers would cash in on the man advantage to take a 2-1 lead as Patrick Kyte’s long-range effort founds its way into the back of the net.
The Stars would go close to an equaliser as Naas, Alex Robert and Keanu Yamamoto all had chances in the first period but at the other end, Fiske had kept the score to 2-1 heading to the second.
Dundee soon tied the game back up as Philippe Sanche beat Owen from the right side in the 27th minute and they then had a chance to regain the lead with a five-minute powerplay after Fife’s captain, Olivier Leblanc was ejected from the match for slashing Stars forward, Jake Elmer between the legs in the 32nd minute.
Even with their man advantage for a long period, the Stars were struggling to score and would drop to play four-on-four when Elmer was penalised for a hooking foul, on 35 minutes.
However, Dundee would turn the extra space into the go-ahead-goal as Kyle Pouncy played a pass out from the right corner to the front of goal, where Kameron Kielly was positioned and he lifted the puck over Owen just 21 seconds after each team had dropped to four skaters.
The Stars then took their one-goal lead into the third period and would soon increase it to a two-goal cushion with a powerplay goal in the 44th minute, as Fife’s Ryan Foss was sent to the sin bin for abuse of an official after his disagreement with Toby Craig when no called was made on possible foul.
Foss continued to hound Craig and earned himself an extra 10-minute misconduct for his language and on the ensuing man advantage, Brendan Harms would poke home a loose puck after a scramble in the Flyers goalmouth.
Although, less than a minute later the Kirkcaldy club were back on the penalty kill as Massimo Carozza was called for slashing and inside 46 minutes, Dundee captain Drydn Dow blasted home a long-range effort to make it 5-2 and give the home side their second powerplay goal of the evening.
Interim Head Coach, Johnny Curran called a timeout to settle his side down but the Stars were not finished and Dundonian forward, Craig Garrigan bagged his first goal of the season to make it 6-2 on 49 minutes, as he was played in behind by Alex Robert and dispatched the puck past Owen with a backhanded finish.
After starting off the scoring, Naas would then round it off in the 55th minute as he followed up on his own rebound and slipped it between the legs of the Fife keeper and that win has moved the Stars back into eighth in the Elite League table, with 19 points from 25 games.
Next up for Dundee is a trip to Belfast Giants on Monday as they close out the year with a double header against Adam Keefe’s men, with the Giants coming to Scotland on Hogmanay.
Man of the Match
Dundee: #18 Spencer Naas
Fife:#94 Kieran Craig
Goals
1st:
1-0 Spencer Naas (Brendan Harms, Kameron Kielly) 04:17
1-1 Kieran Craig (Unassisted) 07:32
1-2 Patrick Kyte (Austin Farley, Jordy Stallard) 10:02 PGG
2nd:
2-2 Philippe Sanche (Brett Gravelle, Ben O’Connor) 26:48
3-2 Kameron Kielly (Kyle Pouncy, Domenic Alberga) 35:50
3rd:
4-2 Brendan Harms (Jake Elmer, Drydn Dow) 43:49 PPG
5-2 Drydn Dow (Jake Elmer, Zach Tsekos) 45:15 PPG
6-2 Craig Garrigan (Alex Robert, Drydn Dow) 49:01
7-2 Spencer Naas (Ben O’Connor, Brendan Harms) 54:29
All images: Derek Black.
