By Kris Smith
This will be the first time the Stars meet the Devils this season and the two sides are separated by just one-point, with Cardiff sitting second after 11 games and Dundee third after 13.
Marc LeFebvre’s side began last weekend by continuing their hot streak with a 4-1 victory over Manchester Storm on Friday night, which moved them above the Altrincham side and into second place.
Despite falling behind in the final seconds of the first period to Samuel Tremblay’s goal, Dundee’s Ryan Valentini and Spencer Naas struck quickly in the second to get the home side ahead, before third period goals from Anthony Rinaldi and James Phelan’s empty-netter sealed the win.
Then on Saturday night in Coventry, the Stars had gone ahead against the Blaze through Carter Johnson but fell behind in the second period and would end up 3-1 behind.
Jake Elmer then cut the deficit back to one in the final five minutes, but Coventry scored into an empty net to snap Dundee’s five-game unbeaten run.
Meanwhile, the Devils have won their last four league games, whilst also progressing to the knockouts in the Challenge Cup and on the European stage in the Continental Cup.
Leading the scoring for Pete Russell’s men is Tyler Busch, who has put up six goals and six assists in 11 league games but he was not amongst the goals in their last match as the Welsh club brushed aside Fife Flyers on Sunday, beating them 6-0.
Cole Ully grabbed a hat-trick against Tom Coolen’s team and Cole Sanford, Joey Martin and Joshua Waller each contributed with one goal each.
The Stars will still be without injured defenseman, Kris Inglis tonight but forward, Ryan Valentini will return to the line-up after missing Saturday’s trip to Coventry.
Looking ahead to his team’s first match against the Devils, Stars Head Coach, LeFebvre said: “It is a massive game for us but when you look at the table and how tight it is, every game is massive.
“We have had a good run of results lately but they are a good team with a lot of skill up front and they are very strong on their backend, with also some great goaltending.
“We all know what Pete’s teams are like and they are going to be very competitive, that is for sure.
“We have to be ready from the drop of the puck and that is for every game, not just tonight and we know to expect from Cardiff, it will be a tough challenge but we have a confident group and we have to be ready to go.”
As his side looking to bounce-back from defeat, LeFebvre continued: “We just have to get over what happened on Saturday, we were not bad but we were not good either.
“It was a sloppy game overall but as I have said, we have to get points every weekend and Friday night was a reflection of how we want to play, and we have to get back to that tonight.
“We have a tough run of fixtures coming this week but if you look at the table, every game will be tough so there is no margin for error here, we must get something out of every week.”
Face-off for tonight’s home game is at 7:30pm and you can purchase your tickets HERE!
All images: Derek Black.
