By Kris Smith
The Stars are aiming to get back on course and return to winning ways following a narrow home defeat to Manchester Storm in their last outing, as a 4-3 loss stopped them from completing a four-point weekend after they had beaten Cardiff Devils 4-2 in South Wales.
Dundee currently sit one point ahead of Manchester in the league table and occupy the eighth and final playoff spot but a win over Fife Flyers tonight could help them eliminate the gap to seventh as the Taysiders sit only two points behind Glasgow Clan.
This will be the Stars fourth trip of the season to Kirkcaldy and after losing 4-1 on their first visit to the Fife Ice Arena, they have since outscored their cross-river rivals 10-4 by securing 7-2 and 3-2 victories.
The last meeting between the two foes was the second game of a Boxing Day double header as the Stars skated to that 3-2 win in Fife on December 26 before coming home to claim a 7-2 victory on December 28.
Brendan Harms, Philippe Sanche and Zach Tsekos had all scored in Kirkcaldy, while Jarrett Fiske backstopped the team to victory in both games and Dundee then had six different scorers on home ice as; Spencer Naas (2), Sanche, Kameron Kielly, Harms, Drydn Dow and Craig Garrigan all found the back of the Flyers net.
Last weekend, Johnny Curran’s Flyers lost 3-1 to Coventry Blaze at home on Saturday before taking a 1-0 lead in Guildford on Sunday night, but would go on to be beaten 7-1 by the Flames.
Fife have now lost 11 straight games with their last win coming back on December 1 as they defeated Sheffield Steelers 5-3 in Kirkcaldy, but that was only their second win of the campaign and they remain rooted to the foot of the Elite League table with six points from 26 games played.
Looking ahead to this tonight’s derby match, Stars Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre said: “We will probably have a full line-up available for the weekend, which is nice to have again because you want to have options.
“We know the implications for every game from here on out and with only 25 games left to go, every point is crucial but we still take things one game at a time.
“Fife is a tough place to go into and they are a big rival for us but they have not been getting the results they have wanted lately and have made some changes, although they have been playing a lot better lately.
“We cannot take them lightly and it is imperative that we get two points against them tonight but that only happens if we are ready to go because we know they will be ready for this one, especially with having a new coach as well and guys will be wanting to impress him as well.”
Face-off for tonight’s road game in Fife is at 7:15pm.All images: Derek Black.
