By Kris Smith
With only five games remaining in their season, the Stars currently have 10 points left to play for and a six-point gap between them and Manchester Storm, who are hunting them down in a bid to steal the last playoff place away from the Taysiders.
However, if Dundee can defeat the Blaze this evening and if Manchester fail to beat Sheffield Steelers on the road tonight and Cardiff Devils at home tomorrow, then there will be an eight-point difference between the two sides meaning, the Stars would only need to win one more point from their remaining four matches to clinch a playoff berth.
However, Coventry arrive in the City of Discovery with a hungry mentality after losing all three of their games last weekend, including a pair of defeats to the Storm.
Kevin Moore’s men are currently occupying fifth spot in the league table but have already secured their spot in the post season but to avoid dropping down the standings, they need to get back on track and they arrive at the DIA with a strong record of a shootout win and overtime loss on their two previous visits in this campaign.
The West Midlands club have already won three out of the five meetings with the Taysiders this season but the most recent game saw Dundee take a 4-2 win and two points away from the SkyDome Arena.
The Stars were helped to victory by Alex Rober, Zach Tsekos (2) and Ben O’Connor, whilst Chase Gresock and Michael Regush netted for the home team but Jarrett Fiske’s 36 saves in the Dundee goal proved just a vital.
Tsekos also had the overtime winner in the first clash between the two clubs back in November and he currently has eight points from his last six matches.
Speaking ahead of tonight’s crucial match, Stars Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre said: “We have no excuses this weekend, there is no travel and we cannot talk about guys being out injured or guys not being rested properly.
“We have had enough time to get rested up, train and do some recovery, because it will be all hands-on deck for a big match tonight.
“Coventry did not have the best results last weekend, so they will be looking to rebound from that and we have to be ready for them because they are a good team and we have had good games against them all season.
“They have all been challenging contests and I expect no different tonight.”
Discussing how his side will remain level headed through the final stretch of their season and continue working towards the goal of booking a spot in the playoffs, he continued: “We have had it all season, when there has been bad during the year, we have just had to move forward and it is the same when we have really good things happening for us – it is all about keep moving forward.
“We know what we need to do tonight and every point is crucial at this time in the season, so until there is a little ‘x’ next to our name then nothing is done because we know Manchester will be looking for points this weekend as well, but we can only control what we can control and that is tonight against Coventry.”
Face-off for tonight’s home game is at 7pm.
All images: Derek Black.
