By Kris Smith
Marc LeFebvre’s men are also out looking for revenge against Cardiff after suffering a 6-1 loss on their most recent visit to South Wales, when Keanu Yamamoto scored their only goal of the game.
Whereas, Brett Perlini, Sam Duggan, Josh MacDonald, Kyle Olischefski. Tyler Busch and Gleason Fournier all scored past Jarrett Fiske in the Dundee net but it has been a closely contested match for 38 minutes until the Devils pulled away into a big lead.
The Stars come into the mid-week matchup after a 4-3 overtime victory at home on Saturday over Coventry Blaze in league-play, before having their Challenge Cup campaign condemned with a game left to play as a 1-0 loss in Northern Ireland to Belfast Giants scuppered their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages.
Dundee had taken a 2-0 lead on Saturday against Coventry after Yamamoto and Jake Elmer both found the back of the net once in each of the first two periods but in the third session, the Blaze struck quickly and tied the game in just five minutes as Alessio Luciani and Archie Hazeldine fired past Richard Sabol.
Then with 48 minutes played, Nick Seitz would tuck home the go-ahead-goal for Kevin Moore’s side but the Stars found an equaliser with three minutes left to play as Philippe Sanche scored on his re-debut for the club.
Once into overtime, the Taysiders were a man down but Drydn Dow’s pass over the top to Zach Tsekos would allow him to end the match on 63 minutes as he deked his way past Mat Robson to score the winner.
Then on Sunday, Ciaran Long’s 49th minute strike would be the only one of the game as Dundee and Belfast battled it out for 60 minutes, with the Giants victory helping them to clinch first-place in Group B of the Challenge Cup.
Meanwhile, Pete Russell’s men were stopped a two-game losing skid this weekend with a 5-3 victory over Sheffield Steelers in Cardiff on Sunday but they had previously lost 3-1 away to Nottingham Panthers and 5-3 at home to Coventry earlier in the week.
Speaking before tonight’s match, Stars Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre said: “They are a hell of a hockey team, so we know what we are in for and we know it will be a good challenge.
“They are always title contenders, they have a pretty deep line-up but we have been playing some very good hockey as of late and even on Sunday, to have lost 1-0 there were still some good plays made by us.
“We played an okay road game but only giving up one goal away from home, you would expect to win the game on most nights, however we just could not find that final touch around the net.
“Although, the main thing for us was getting some points on the board in the league table on Saturday night with a gutsy effort against a very good Coventry side who were in-form as much as anybody in the league right now.
“So, it was a mixed bag of a weekend but we have to take the positives out of it and bring them into this mid-week home game.
“We know it will be a tough challenge but we are looking forward to it and if you want to win things in this league, then you have to beat the big teams.”
He continued: “When you play those top teams like Sheffield, Belfast and Cardiff, you cannot take any shifts off or give them anything for free.
“You have to make it hard on them all night and try to frustrate them as much as possible, they always have a lot of firepower and a lot of depth but we have to find a way past them.”
Face-off for tonight’s home game is at 7:30pm.
All images: James Assinder.
