By Kris Smith
The Stars are currently sit ninth in the Elite League table on 13 points from 21 games, which is three points behind the seventh-place Clan and so far this season, Glasgow have been victorious in the last four meetings, winning three by a one-goal margin.
The last meeting between the two was their first contest in league play and back at the start of December, the Taysiders let their lead slip twice as Corey Neilson’s men came back to win 4-3.
Stars captain, Drydn Dow had put the visitors ahead early before a quick brace from Cole Ully had the Clan in front going into the first break.
Brett Gravelle would then level the score at 2-2 as he fired past Landon Bow in the Glasgow net, before Brendan Harms’ powerplay goal put Dundee back in front, as they took a 3-2 lead into the final session.
However, Felix Pare would make it an even game once again as equalised for the Clan and only a few minutes from full-time, Tyson McLellan tapped home the winner at the back post of Richard Sabol’s goal.
At the time, the Stars had suffered with a lot of injuries but now have Jake Elmer, Kameron Kielly and Zach Tsekos all back into their line-up, along with the returning Spencer Naas who makes his first trip back to Glasgow since re-joining the club.
In their last outing, the Stars went down 5-2 to Cardiff Devils on home ice after fast start from both teams saw six goals scored in the opening 20 minutes.
Tsekos had put Dundee in front before a quick pair of strikes from the Welsh club soon reversed the lead but Philippe Sanche was on hand to make it a 2-2 game after only seven minutes of play.
Cardiff would add two more goals before the first break and kept their 4-2 lead until the final minute of the match when an empty-net goal wrapped up the victory for Pete Russell’s side.
Meanwhile, Glasgow’s last match was abandoned after the first period, with the home side tied 1-1 with Guildford Flames and the match had been stopped due to ice quality issues at Braehead Arena, which had been caused by a mechanical issue with their temporary ice plant.
Referees were forced to stop the match as they cited safety concerns and that put a pause to the Clan’s five-game winning streak.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s double header, Stars Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre said: “This week we have stripped it back down to the basics, got back to our fundamentals because we have sort of lost our way a bit, especially in our defensive zone over the last few games.
“We have to settle things down when we are in our zone, limit time and space, and the other team’s chances at our net front, so we have really worked on that and got back to the basics.
“We want to get out of this slump right now and we know there is a lot of hockey still left to play but we have to get some points on the board and there is no better time than this weekend against one of our biggest rivals.”
He continued: “We have played in there enough times now so that our guys know what to expect when they go in there.
“It is a loud building, they get behind their team pretty well there and on the ice, they have four lines that play hard and fast, they also have big defensive-core that we have to find ways in behind and obviously some good goaltending too.
“They have had an upturn in form in recent weeks but we know what we have to do against these guys and we have played them often enough to know what to expect.”
Face-off for tonight’s road game in Glasgow is at 7pm.
All images: Al Goold.