By Kris Smith
The Stars will be hungry to take both points from tonight’s game to keep themselves locked in the hunt for a playoff spot, but their hopes of catching up to seventh-placed, Manchester Storm took a blow last night as they went down 3-2 in Altrincham.
Dundee opened the scoring in just three minutes as Carter Folk put the Tayside team ahead but Anthony DeLuca would equalise for the Storm in the final minute of the first period.
Another quick goal inside the opening minutes of the second period put the Stars back in front as Folk turned provider for Ben Sokay, but DeLuca once again hauled his side back onto level terms, with a breakaway goal in the 25th minute.
Then just two minutes later, Tyson Fawcett fired Manchester into their first lead of the match and they would then go onto protect that lead as the Stars hopes of a comeback were somewhat scuppered by a major penalty against forward, Hugo Reinhardt at the end of the middle period.
The Swedish forward was thrown out of the game for boarding and that left Dundee on a five-minute penalty kill but they would not allow the home team to convert on the lengthy powerplay.
Meanwhile, tonight’s opponents Cardiff were beaten 5-2 by Guildford Flames at home yesterday evening, as the English outfit opened up a 2-0 lead before responding to the Devils first goal with three more.
Joey Martin and Ryan Penny were both on target for the home side and Brodie DuPont’s men now make the long drive north to Tayside for their fourth clash of the season with the Stars.
Dundee will be looking for their second win against Cardiff but will have to do so without forward Romans Semjonovs as he has been ruled out for a number of weeks with a lower-body injury.
Speaking ahead of tonight’s game against the Devils, Stars Head Coach, Mason said: “We match-up well against them and if you look back to the last game, then we need to do a much better job at defending in transition, not giving them so many odd-man rushes and not allowing quality offensive players time and space to operate.
“That said, we have done a number of good things against them and we have shown we can score goals against them too, so we need to continue to build on those things, tighten up defensively and not give them the time and space, or odd-man rushes where they have guy who can capitalise on it.”
Stars forward, Ian Parker also shared what he believes can be the key to success against the Welsh side tonight, adding: “They are a team that works well in the offensive zone, so limiting their time on the attack we will be crucial to our success.
“They have always had very good starts against us, so it would be great if we could get the jump on them and make them play on their heels early and try to control the game from in front.”
Face-off is at 5pm and you can buy your tickets HERE!
All images: Derek Black.
