By Kris Smith
The Stars arrive in Altrincham off the back of last Sunday’s 5-2 Tayside Derby victory over Fife Flyers as they stormed into a 4-0 lead after 40 minutes before destroying any hopes of a comeback for the Kirkcaldy club, after Tom Coolen’s men recovered to a 4-2 scoreline.
Alex Tonge, Brendan Harms (2), Brett Gravelle and Philippe Sanche all found the back of the net for Dundee, whilst Richard Sabol backstopped them with 22 saves and claimed his sixth win in league play.
Marc LeFebvre’s men currently sit in sixth place with 10 points from 10 games and can move six points clear of Manchester in eighth, but Mike Flanagan’s men have already beaten Dundee once in this campaign.
On the Storm’s first visit to Tayside, Dundee had gone 1-0 up inside the opening two minutes through Jonathan McBean but the visitors hit back with two goals from Alex Robert and Grant Hebert to take the lead after the first period.
Mike Flanagan’s side then built their lead out to 4-1 in the middle session with more goals from Craig Martin and Stephen Johnson, before the Stars finally hit back with a powerplay goal through Zach Tsekos.
However, Jake Durflinger then restored the Storm’s three-goal cushion heading into the third period but the Stars would cut into the lead once again when Tonge blasted one past Evan Weninger, then moments later they scored again but Tsekos’ second of the night would be disallowed for a kicking motion.
Jake Elmer would then score Dundee’s fourth as he beat Weninger at his near post and the Stars then threw everything at finding a winner but Manchester would hold on to claim the 5-4 victory.
Meanwhile, the English club have lost three games in a row and have only one victory in their last five matches, with a 3-1 road win over Nottingham Panthers coming back at the end of October.
Last weekend, Manchester’s only game saw them go down 7-2 at home to Belfast Giants and after conceding twice in two minutes, one minute later Martin would get the Storm off the mark.
However, they would fall 3-1 behind before Grant Herbert cut Belfast’s lead back down to once more but the Giants then accelerated into a 6-2 advantage before adding one more goal in the third session, with Weninger making 21 saves before being replaced by Alex Oldale for the final period and he would stop four of the five shots that came his way.
Speaking ahead of tonight’s road game, Stars Head Coach, Marc LeFebvre said: “It is a different animal playing in that rink, it is a smaller ice pad and you do not have as much time and space as you think you do.
“So, it will be a tough game and we are right beside each other in the standings but it has always been a good matchup between us and Manchester for the past few seasons and I do not expect tonight to be any different.
“We know it is a tough building to go in and get points out of but we just have to be prepared to go in there and play a full 60 minutes against them.”
Face-off for tonight’s road game is at 7:30pm.
All images: Derek Black.
