By Kris Smith
The Stars are searching for their first win of the season over Sheffield, who have blown away the rest of the league with their impressive form and they currently sit nine points clear at the summit with 13 games left to play.
Meanwhile, Dundee is locked in a scrap at the bottom half as they fight for a playoff place and with only five points separating fourth from eighth, every match and point is crucial.
In the Stars last outing, they were beaten 4-1 in Altrincham by playoff rivals, Manchester Storm on Friday night and they also defeated the Steelers 5-3 on Saturday evening.
Matt Ginn’s men scored a pair of goals in both the first and second period to open up a 4-0 lead before Brendan Harms bagged the Stars only goal, late in the third session and both Dundee goalies, Kevin Carr and Lucas Brine saw action in Manchester.
Currently leading the Dundee offence against Sheffield is Harms and his linemate, Ryan Valentini who have both scored four points (1G, 3A) in five meetings with the Yorkshire club, whose offence against the Stars has been fronted by Mitchell Balmas with eight points (3G, 5A).
The last meeting between Dundee and Sheffield saw the Steelers take a 5-1 victory at the Utilita Arena with Spencer Naas netting for the Taysiders, whilst Mikko Juusola, Patrick Watling, Robert Dowd, Marc-Olivier Vallerand and Scott Allen were on target for the home team.
Discussing tonight’s visit from Sheffield, Stars Head Coach, Marc, LeFebvre said: “They are an excellent hockey team and have been the form team all season, since day one.
“The previous five matches against them, I thought we played okay in spurts but they are a team that just comes at you in waves and you have to be prepared to play a full 60 minutes against them.
“You cannot make any mistakes because they will make you pay and you can see that from the results this year, they are in first place by a mile and for a reason.
“However, in one game anything can happen so you never know but on Sunday we will look to send a message against them.”
Face-off for tonight’s home game against Sheffield is at 5pm and you can buy your tickets HERE!
All images: Derek Black.
