By Kris Smith
The Stars come into the first of two matches against the Flyers off the back of an 8-5 home victory against Glasgow Clan on Sunday as they turned around a 3-2 loss in Braehead the night before, to snap an eight-game losing streak.
Jake Elmer and Brett Gravelle both scored in Glasgow on Saturday night and each found the back of the net again in Sunday’s win as Xavier Pouliot scored the only goal of the first period, before Brendan Harms doubled Dundee’s lead with a powerplay marker in the second.
After the Clan had brought it back to 2-2, Gravelle then restored the Taysiders lead before Elmer netted on the powerplay to make it 4-2 and the Stars headed into the final period with a 4-3 lead.
Kameron Kielly scored just 27 seconds after the restart, before Harms lit the lamp again whilst on the man advantage to give Dundee a 6-3 cushion.
However, the visitors would then start going toe-for-toe with goals and after they pulled it back to 6-4, Elmer shot into an empty net in the final minutes for his second of the night, but the scoring was not complete as Glasgow netted again and Harms secured his hat-trick with another empty-netter in the final minute.
Meanwhile, the Flyers were beaten 6-1 in Fife by Belfast Giants on Saturday evening and the reverse fixture in Northern Ireland on Sunday was postponed due to the adverse weather preventing the Giants from returning to Belfast.
Fife have lost their last five matches, scoring only four goals whilst shipping in 27 and their only win in the last nine games makes up half of their total league victories this season.
The Stars are currently sitting in ninth place in the Elite League table, level with Manchester Storm on 15 points and three behind Glasgow, but the Flyers are nine points adrift from Marc LeFebvre’s men right now after 20 games played.
Since the last meeting between the two Tayside rivals on November 10; Spencer Naas has returned to the Stars, Dundee’s injury bug has cleared up as they begun to ice a full line-up in the past few weeks, Fife have parted ways with Head Coach, Tom Coolen and forward, Johnny Curran has stepped up to take the reigns as Interim Head Coach after his season was brought to an early end by injury.
The Flyers have also been short-benched and experienced a severe turnover in players resulting in multiple changes to their squad as four more players left the club and three new faces were brought in, including former Dundee Star, Ben Brown on a two-way contract with Dundee Rockets.
The Stars have won four of five contests against the Flyers in this campaign, losing 4-1 in Kirkcaldy during the Challenge Cup Group Stages but have since gone on to be victorious in the last three meetings and so far this season, they have outscored Fife 23-10.
Looking ahead to tonight’s derby, Stars Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre said: “The biggest thing for us will be getting the guys away from the rink for a few days, resting and relaxing with their family and friends, which is more important than hockey in my book.
“We will get back to work against Fife, with a couple of big games ahead of us.
“Sunday night’s win was a positive step in the right direction and just getting a win was more than important that anything, regardless of the scoreline.
“It creates some positivity for the guys right before Christmas, so we took the stress out of the situation for a few days and get back to it tonight against a Fife team, who want to turn things around just like we do.
“It does not matter who is in their line-up, like I have always said, it does not matter who you are playing against you have to be ready to play.
“It is a tough building to go into and we know from previous experiences that we have to come out firing on all cylinders.”
Face-off for tonight’s match in Kirkcaldy is at 6:30.
All images: Flyers Images.
