By Kris Smith
The Stars head into the match off the back of a narrow 2-1 defeat at home to Nottingham Panthers last night as Jarrett Fiske was beaten twice within the opening four minutes, with Zsombor Garat and Kristoff Kontos firing the visitors ahead.
It would then be a very tight and cagey affair as they Stars tried to push their way back into the match but there would be no goals for the next 55 minutes, despite numerous powerplays for both teams.
However, the Nottingham captain, Sam Herr was called for a tripping foul inside the final minute and with only 19 seconds left on the clock, Spencer Naas shot past Jason Grande to dash his hopes of recording a shutout on the night.
Dundee could not muster up a quick second to level the score and Danny Stewart’s men walked away with the two points.
The Flyers were also beaten last night as they were defeated 4-0 by Glasgow Clan, which moved them level on points and back above Dundee in the standings, but the Clan go on the road to face Nottingham tonight and the Flyers will be hungry to put an end to their losing run against the Stars this season.
Fife have lost the last six Tayside Derbies and the most recent was on January 11, ending 5-2 at the Fife Ice Arena but with the Flyers rooted to the bottom of the league table, the club up for sale and only one victory from their last 18 games – they have nothing to lose.
Speaking before tonight’s match, Stars Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre said: “One thing for us is that we cannot underestimate them, they have some guys that can hurt you and score goals, then they have goalies who can get hot at any time, so we cannot look at the standings going into that game.
“We have to go in there with a winning mentality and go after them from puck drop, a team like that with not really a lot to play for, well they are the most dangerous teams.
“That is because they have more of a care-free attitude and they play a bit more loose when there is no pressure on them, so those are the teams that are the most dangerous this time of year.
“We need those points and it is also a big rivalry for us and we do not want to lose games to rivals.”
Face-off time for tonight’s road game in Fife is at 5:15pm.
All images: Flyers Images.
