By Kris Smith
The Stars are still placed sixth in the league standings despite suffering two defeats last weekend as they were beaten 6-3 away to Manchester Storm last Friday and 3-1 at home by Guildford Flames.
Ben O’Connor, Keanu Yamamoto and Brett Gravelle were all on the scoresheet against Manchester as Richard Sabol started the weekend off in net but American goaltender, Jarrett Fiske would defend the crease against Guildford as Jonathan McBean netted Dundee’s only goal.
However, Marc LeFebvre’s side has been plagued with injuries leaving them short benched but still with 10 points from 12 matches and they will still head into this weekend’s contests a few players down.
Jake Elmer, Alex Tonge, Kameron Kielly and Brogan O’Brien were all absent from Saturday’s loss to Guildford through injury.
When Kevin Moore’s Blaze came to Tayside at the start of November, they found themselves 2-0 down after two periods as Keanu Yamamoto and Jake Elmer each found the back of the net, but Coventry would turn the match around to take a 3-2 lead with a trio of goals in an eight-minute span.
Alessio Luciani, Archie Hazeldine and Nick Seitz all found a way past Richard Sabol in the Dundee goal before Philippe Sanche equalised for the Stars with less than four minutes remaining and the contest would require overtime, where Zach Tsekos’ shorthanded winner bagged the extra point for the Taysiders.
Coming into this weekend, the Blaze are on a high after defeating Sheffield Steelers in Yorkshire with a 4-3 overtime win last Saturday and they then won 4-3 again over Nottingham Panthers in regulation on Sunday.
Discussing tonight’s matchup with Coventry, Stars Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre said: “Last weekend was not the weekend we wanted for sure because you never want to come out of a weekend with no points, so it is imperative that we get something out of this weekend.
“Right now, we are sitting in sixth spot, obviously we want to move up the table and we are riddled with injuries but that is not going to be an excuse.
“You just have to go out there and play the games, play with some urgency and desperation and the players just have to go out there and play with everything they have got in these situations and try to make up for that gap, where we are missing guys.
“We just have to play a simple hockey game, protect our next, stay disciplined and stay within our structure and take advantage of our opportunities when we get them.
“Coventry have been playing very well lately and they want to come in here and do us over and they do not want to leave without a win like they did last time, as we ended up with the two points.”
Face-off for tonight’s home game against Coventry is at 7pm.
All images: Derek Black.
