By Kris Smith
Stars need a huge win tonight to get back on track with their playoff push as they need to close the gap on Braehead Clan again.
A 4-2 loss to Coventry Blaze last night meant Dundee dropped back down to tenth in the standings, but a win tonight and a loss for Blaze at home to Guildford Flames would see Stars climb back into ninth place.
Braehead Clan defeated Belfast Giants on the road last night, to move three points clear of Dundee and two ahead of Coventry but tonight they host Manchester Storm, where a road win for the Storm could be huge for Stars.
Meanwhile yesterday in Milton Keynes, the Lightning were pegged back multiple times by Guildford but eventually Milton Keynes won the game on a shootout.
This is Dundee’s third and final game of the weekend as they host eleventh placed, Milton Keynes Lightning, who are almost out of the playoff race, but they will not just hand Stars the two points.
This is the final meeting between the Buckinghamshire club and the team from Tayside. Omar Pacha’s men have claimed two wins, a 5-1 win for Stars on home ice gave them first blood in the first Elite League fixture between the two sides but the score was reversed in Milton Keynes when Lightning claimed a 5-1 victory of their own.
The second game in England went to Dundee after an exciting start which seen the home side go up 3-2 but Dundee slowly clawed back a goal in each period to take the lead 4-3. Pete Russell’s side will be without forwards, Kyle Essery and Tommy Mele as the pair are expected to miss Sunday’s league clash due to injury. While Dundee will be without Joey De Concilys through injury and Chris Lawrence as he serves his second part of a two match ban.
Stars netminder, Travis Fullerton has acknowledged the fact that Milton Keynes will not just “roll over” for Dundee and expects the Lightning to put up a good fight. He said: “We feel good about the weekend, we are playing well right now and these are fun games to play this time of year.
“They have a couple dangerous lines up front and a good goalie, so it will be tough and we have to be disciplined and capitalise on our chances against them.
“I’ve been in their position before and it’s difficult, but there’s 0% chance they just show up and roll over for us.
“It won’t happen, and we know that, it will be a hard game for us especially after a long week.”
“It’s a huge game, at home with five games left it’s a game we need to win.
“It is nothing new though we’ve been playing these important games for over a month now.
“It’s all about wins, if we win 9-8 or 2-1 it’s two points in the standings.
“My job is to help us get those points and keep us moving up the ladder.”
Tonight’s game will face-off at 5pm.
