By Kris Smith
The Stars are hitting the road on a high after last week’s six-point haul as they won all three of their fixtures, including two crucial victories over playoff rivals Manchester Storm and they caused a massive upset against league leaders, Belfast Giants.
Dundee started off by skating to a 5-2 win in Manchester on Wednesday, before then heading to Northern Ireland and holding on to an early 3-0 lead to claim the two points with a 3-2 result and they then defeated the Storm again at home on Sunday with a 4-3 shootout win.
Spencer Naas and Brendan Harms led the short benched Taysiders with three goals each in their three matches last week and goaltender, Jarrett Fiske made a total of 151 saves as he backstopped his side crucial victories.
The Elite League table now sees the Stars sit on 44 points and in eighth place after 47 games, with Marc LeFebvre’s men now holding a nine-point lead over Manchester, who are trying to hunt down Dundee to steal the last playoff berth.
Tonight’s opposition Cardiff are reeling from Wednesday’s 4-0 Challenge Cup Final defeat to the Giants in Belfast and will be hungry to return to winning ways after a strong weekend, where they had won twice in overtime against Coventry Blaze and Nottingham Panthers.
Unbeaten in their last four league games, Pete Russell’s side have won three out of their four meetings with the Stars so far this season but the last match ended with Dundee taking a 4-2 win in the Vindico Arena and they will be hoping to repeat their success on their final regular season visit to South Wales.
Looking ahead to his side’s away double header, Stars Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre said: “The first priority this week has been getting these guys some rest because being proud of them is an understatement.
“They have done everything I have asked of them, they all came together and won six valuable points in the standings, which creates a little more separation for us to get into the playoffs.
“However, it is a new week and we need to be ready to go, Cardiff is where they are in the standings because they are a quality opposition so, we need to be ready for them and hopefully we will have a few more bodies back for this weekend.
“It is always a tough building to go into, it is loud and we have to find a way to drown out that crowd like we did in Belfast.
“It is imperative that we have a good start and it is all about momentum in that building, so a good start is going to be key to that and to get the crowd out of it.
“They obviously have some dangerous players out there, so we need to watch out for that as well and anytime you play Cardiff it will be a tough match and Pete will have those guys ready to go.”
Face-off for tonight’s game in Cardiff is at 7pm.
All images: James Assinder.
