By Kris Smith
The Stars walked away with a point for their efforts in Northern Ireland last night as they went back and forth with Belfast Giants before losing the game with one minute remaining in overtime.
The home team had taken the lead after 86 seconds through Joe Cassetti’s point-blank effort but in the fifth minute, Jake Elmer would convert from a breakaway to tie the match and just seconds later, Brendan Harms tucked in a loose rebound to put Dundee in front.
Making his Stars debut, Kameron Kielly then added his name to the scoresheet with a fast wrist shot from the slot and that sent the Taysiders into the first break 3-1 up but the Giants responded quickly in the second to reduce the lead, as Scott Conway fired past Richard Sabol just 17 seconds after the restart.
Defenseman, Cole MacDonald then restored Dundee’s two-goal cushion as he jumped up on the attack and buried the puck into the top corner of Tom McCollum’s goal but Belfast’s Jordan Kawaguchi and Robert Carpenter both struck three minutes apart to level the score at 4-4.
The Giants then regained the lead early in the third period through J.J. Piccinich’s effort but Harms would convert on the powerplay for his second of the night and to tie the game up once again.
Overtime was required and after the Stars had a few good chances to take the win, Belfast countered quickly and Kawaguchi backhanded the puck past Sabol to secure the extra point with one-minute remaining in extra time.
Meanwhile, tonight’s opposition Fife Flyers suffered a very late defeat in league-play to Manchester Storm as they lost 6-5 and conceded with only 17 seconds left in the game.
The Storm had taken the lead on eight minutes through Loren Ulett before Maxim Musorov tied it up for Fife and Johnny Curran gave the home team a 2-1 lead at the end of the first.
Nikolai Shulga then extended the lead to 3-1 for the Flyers but Jake Durflinger would pull one back for Manchester, but just as Phelix Martineau returned the Kirkcaldy club to a two-goal advantage, Ulett scored the fourth goal in as many minutes to make it 4-3 heading to the third.
Just 68 seconds into the final period, Lucas Chiodo once again gave the Flyers a two-goal lead but Ulett picked a third way past Shane Owen to keep the English side within one and then with less than six minutes to play, Alexis D’Aoust tied the game at 5-5 before Ulett hit the back of the net for a fourth time and won the game for the Storm with only 17 seconds left on the clock.
Tom Coolen’s men have yet to find success against their cross-river rivals after losing both preseason encounters 4-2 in Dundee and 6-4 at home, but they have the same competitive record as the Stars after winning one of the opening three matches.
Brett Gravelle, Alex Tonge and Jake Elmer have all netted two against the Flyers in their first meetings with their biggest rivals, whilst Austin Farley is the only Fife player to have scored more than once against Dundee.
Reflecting on last night’s overtime loss in Belfast, Stars Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre said: “
“I thought it was run and gun and both teams defensively gave up some quality chances tonight.
“In the first period we took advantage of some sloppiness on their side going through one-on-one and then we got sloppy in the second period and were on our heels a bit.
“We weathered the storm and a got a big goal to get us a point on the road, then in overtime anything can happen and we had some quality chances and they end up capitalising on their chance at the end but I am happy with the effort.
“We worked hard tonight and obviously with the defensive side of the game we have to get better at but we will score a lot of goals this year as you can probably see in our opening games here.
“It is a big point in a tough building and I have been coming to this building on and off for 20 years now and it has always been about momentum in this building and it is unfortunate that we give up and early goal in the first and the second, so we have to have a better start.
“You have to ride that wave when you come to a building like this and against a team who is going to be competing for every trophy like Belfast, I think we matched them quite well tonight.”
Stars forward, Craig Garrigan then discussed how the team are feeling heading into today’s derby and he said: “The boys are excited for tomorrow’s game, they got a little taste of the derby games in preseason.
“They know how big these games are and how much it means to the fans, so we are all looking forward to playing in a packed DIA.”
He continued: We had our chances to take the two points last night but we are still happy to pick up a point away from home in a tough arena.
“We have just got to make sure we play a good and smart 60-minute game, so we will rest up and be ready for Fife.”
The Stars have scored 13 goals in the first three matches and talking about the highly-productive start, Garrigan added: “I think a big reason for our good offensive production is we have a lot of speed in our lineup.
“We can catch teams out if there are turnovers or catch them out on the transition.”
Face-off for tonight’s home game is at 5pm.
All images: Derek Black.
