By Kris Smith
The Stars have been battling with the injury bug lately with four import players missing from their last three matches but despite their short bench, they still picked up three points from a possible four last weekend, and will be boosted by the addition of forward, Alex Robert who makes his debut tonight.
On Saturday, the Taysiders went all the way to a shootout with Coventry Blaze but would take only one point after losing 3-2 in the shootout and that gave the West Midlands club a 4-3 victory on the night.
Dundee had led by two-goals twice as Brett Gravelle, Brendan Harms and Philippe Sanche were all on target that evening and the following night, they would go down to Yorkshire and open up three more two-goal leads against Sheffield Steelers, eventually winning the match 4-2.
Sanche, Cole MacDonald, Domenic Alberga and Keanu Yamamoto all found the back of net, whilst American goaltender Jarrett Fiske picked up his fourth win of the season, leaving the Stars placed sixth with 13 points from 14 games played.
Meanwhile, the Giants arrive on Tayside in fifth place and three points ahead of the Scottish outfit with 12 league matches under their belt and this weekend could be import for both the Stars and their opponents as Nottingham Panthers sit seventh and one point behind Dundee after 13 games.
Last night, Belfast were beaten 5-2 in Glasgow by the Clan and found themselves 3-0 down after only 17 minutes.
In the second period, the Clan would extend their lead to 4-0 before Jordan Kawaguchi and Grant Mismash pulled the score back to 4-2 with another period left to play, but the only goal of the third period went to the home team, on what was a miserable night for the Giants.
Netminder, Tom McCollum played the full 60 minutes and Belfast also lost forward, Mark Cooper in the 19th minute after he was ejected for a check to the head.
Tonight will be the first league contest of the campaign between Dundee and Belfast as the Giants aim to protect their unbeaten recorded against the Stars this season, after winning all four of the Challenge Cup clashes between the two sides in the group stage.
However, Adam Keefe’s side were forced into overtime on Dundee’s first visit to Northern Ireland and in the most recent game in Belfast, won only 1-0 as the Stars lost by a single goal on both occasions.
Although, the Giants were 7-3 and 5-0 winners on their last two trips to Tayside and Dundee have not scored in the last 120 minutes against Belfast.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s game, Stars Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre said: “We have prepared like we would for any team, we do not make excuses around here and we just go out and play.
“That is all we can do, play with what we have and get on with it like we did on Sunday in Sheffield.
“We did not make any excuses about injuries or travel, or anything because that is a loser’s mentality for us and we just go out there and get the job done.
“We played with a lot of heart and a lot of courage and we will need that same mentality again this weekend, especially with our injury crisis.
“Even when we are at full strength, Belfast is always a tough challenge and we know they will be coming in here and looking to move up the standings but so are we and we will try to get the job done.”
Face-off time for tonight’s home game is at 7pm.
All images: Derek Black.
