By Kris Smith
The Stars face the Flames tonight before taking on Nottingham Panthers tomorrow evening, with all four-points a must need to keep their hopes of climbing into a playoff spot alive.
Dundee were unlucky to lose last Saturday as they went down 5-4 in Wales to Cardiff Devils after a penalty shootout and they were then beaten 3-1 by Glasgow Clan on home ice, on Sunday.
However, whilst the Stars remain eight points outside of the eighth and final playoff spot, they also hold six games in hand over Glasgow, who currently occupy eighth.
Tonight’s opponents Guildford have not seen the Stars since November when the Surrey-side were well ahead at the summit of the league, but have since been reigned back in.
Although, Jeff Mason’s men are yet to beat the Flames in three games this season as they lost twice in Guildford and suffered a 5-0 defeat the last time they came to Tayside.
In the three games against Paul Dixon’s side, Dundee have been outscored 15-5 by the Flames who now sit second and are still challenging for a league title.
Dundee will be missing Swedish winger, Romans Semjonovs again this weekend and have a few other players battling with injury, whilst two-way players, Ben Brown and Jonathan McBean will be away with their second teams.
Discussing the crucial weekend ahead, Stars Head Coach, Mason said: “They are a team with a lot of speed, they have a lot of skill and they manage the puck really well.
“So, we have to make sure we have a defence-first mindset and do a good job limiting their speed, managing the puck, not turning it over and giving them the chance to play in transition.
“If we can do that then we will be able to generate offence from good defence, which is similar to what our gameplan was going into Cardiff and we need to try and replicate that performance and level of detail in our structure.
“Again, if we can do that then I like our chances of coming away with the points, because they are a team we have not seen in a while, but at times we played them really well.
“Unfortunately, we have not had the success against them that we would have liked but we know we can play well against them and they have run into a little tough patch over the last four or so games and we need to take advantage of it.”
Stars forward, Philippe Sanche then added: “Obviously Guildford are having a really good season so far, so we have to start well right off the bat and play a full 60 minutes.
“We have shown a few times this year that if we start well then we can be in a lot of games and give ourselves a chance to win, so that will be the main focus tonight, just making sure we get off to a good start and give ourselves the chance to win.
“It is a big weekend for us and we are looking for some points right now but we have two big home games, so it is a massive opportunity for us to try and make a push for the playoffs into the final part of the year.”
Face-off for tonight’s game against Guildford is at 7pm.
