By Kris Smith
To start off week 14 of our ‘Look Back’ series, we will be taking you back to the 2014-2015 campaign, which was the club’s 14th year in existence and their fifth season of competing in the Elite League.
Over the course of that season, the Stars played a total of 52 Elite League games but were unable to repeat the successes of the previous year.
In the 2014-2015 campaign, the Elite League was again contested by the same ten teams and Sheffield Steelers were crowned league champions, after winning 74 points, which was 41 points more than Dundee collected, as they finished at the foot of the table.
The Stars were the lowest ranked Scottish club that season, with Braehead Clan achieving a second place finish, with just one point less than Sheffield.
Fife Flyers scrambled into the playoffs in eighth and Edinburgh Capitals were just one-point behind the Kirkcaldy club in ninth.
There was a 40 point difference between Dundee and Braehead, a 14-point gap between the Stars and Flyers and then a 13-point void between Jeff Hutchins men and the Caps.
After the regular seasons had ended, Dundee had a record of 14-33-5 (wins-losses-overtime losses) and they scored 123 goals and conceded 203 over the 52 fixtures.
For only the second time in the club’s EIHL tenure, they failed to qualify for the playoffs but no Scottish side would make it past the first stage as the Clan and Flyers were dumped out in the Quarter-Finals.
Coventry Blaze went on to win the post-season tournament and caused an big upset in the final, as they overcame league winners and heavy favourites, Sheffield.
The Tayside team also competed in the Elite League’s Challenge Cup again and qualified for the knockout stages for the second straight season.
The Stars came fourth in Group A, with six points from eight matches and finished behind, Braehead (14 points), Fife (12 points) and Belfast Giants (12 points).
Dundee had three wins and five losses in Group A and they scored 19 goals, but conceded 32 times.
Although, none of the qualified teams from Group A made it through the first round of the knockout stages, as all four sides were beaten in the Quarter-Finals and Cardiff Devils went on to beat the Steelers in the Challenge Cup Final.
Although, Hutchin’s men were eliminated at the last eight stage by the Steelers and were well and truly humbled by a 14-1 aggregate defeat but Dundee had only been 3-0 down after the first leg in Tayside.
That season’s top point was Canadian-born Brit, Chris Blight, who put up 42 points in 49 games and he led the team in assists as well, with 31.
The top goal scorer for that campaign was Shane Lust, who scored 17 goals in 49 appearances and the most penalised Star that year was Brad Plumton, who racked up a staggering, 376 penalty minutes from 60 games.
In the 2014-2015 season, the team had two active netminders in Marc Cheverie and Craig Holland.
While, the Dundee blueline was manned by such names as; Ryan Grimshaw, Sam McCluskey, Brad Plumton, Kevin Quick, Ziga Svete and Paul Swindlehurst.
Also, James Isaacs was back for a second year but he was the only returning import from the previous season’s Gardiner Conference winning squad.
Whereas, leading the Stars offence, was a bulk of EIHL veteran players like; Blight, Lust, Martin Cingel, John Dolan, Bari McKenzie and there were also some Elite League rookies brought in, including; Rob Ricci, Sean Ringrose, Igor Gongalsky and Kyle Gibbons.
Next we will be bringing you a look back at one Star Player from the 2014-2015 season and that will be released Wednesday at 12pm!
If you want to be a part of the historic 20th Dundee Stars season then you can buy your season tickets by contacting [email protected]
