By Kris Smith
The Stars will be jostling for final positioning in the league standings as they aim to qualify as high as possible for their playoff seeding.
Last weekend saw Dundee clinch their playoff spot with a 5-1 victory in Kirkcaldy, but they were then beaten 4-2 by Fife Flyers in the reverse fixture on Sunday night and now they host the Flyers again tonight, for their final home match in the league.
Omar Pacha will then take his side away to Cardiff Devils and Coventry Blaze on Saturday and Sunday to complete the regular season.
Currently, the Stars are holding onto seventh place with 49 points through 51 games and are tied on points with eighth place, Glasgow Clan, who have played one game more.
Dundee are also only one point behind both Guildford Flames and Coventry Blaze, but need to take maximum points from their last three games to guarantee a fifth-place finish.
They begin the weekend by hosting the last Tayside Derby of the season and the Stars will be eager to redeem themselves in front of their own fans.
Last weekend, Dundee went 2-0 ahead in the Fife Ice Arena, thanks to goals from Spencer Dorowicz and Charlie Combs, before Brandon Magee pulled one back for the Flyers, just after the halfway mark.
However, Combs quickly restored the visitors two-goal advantage and in the third period, Dundee pulled away into a 5-1 lead after goals from Michael Poirier and Connor Sills.
Then last Sunday, Fife came across the Tay Bridge with the goal of making a statement to their fans after Saturday’s defeat eliminated them from playoff contention and Todd Dutiaume’s men did just that.
Inside 13 minutes, the Flyers had opened upa 2-0 lead, as Carson Stadnyk and James Isaacs found the net, but Dorowicz cut the lead back to one, in the final minute of the first period.
Then in the opening minute of the second, Combs tied the game at 2-2 but a quick response from Fife soon killed the home side’s momentum, as eight seconds after they conceded, Jacob Benson restored the Flyers lead.
Fife then added a fourth goal in the third session, again from Benson to seal a bounce-back win in front of their travelling fans.
Double-goalscorer, Spencer Dorowicz then discussed how the Stars are approaching this weekend.
He said: “As a team, we are just trying to focus on the little things that make us successful, and that will ultimately help us heading into playoffs.
“If we can defend hard and play the right way, we will be rewarded and we know that heading into this weekend.
“We are taking it one game at a time and hope to move up the table this weekend as much as we can.”
After a disappointing home ice defeat last Sunday, the players want to give the Stars fans a more memorable result this evening, Dorowicz added: “We definitely want to give it 100 per cent for our fans who have been with us all year long.
“We appreciate all the support and would love to get that home win for them tonight and get everyone excited for the playoffs the following weekend.”
The Canadian forward also addressed how Dundee hope to score more goals this weekend after only scoring on two of the 53 shots they had on target in last Sunday’s loss.
He said; “We played a desperate hockey game in the last game and felt we deserved a better result, but we can still be better in some areas.
“We are going to clean up some mistakes defensively and try to get to the net more to pick-up some grittier type goals, which is how to score in playoffs, so it will be a good test.”
Face-off time for tonight’s game in Dundee is at 7:30pm.
