Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
ROUND-UP Stars coach is satisfied with weekend haul
DUNDEE CCS Stars picked up a respectable three points from four at the weekend.
They beat Braehead Clan 3-0 away i n a Gardiner Conference on Saturday but lost in a penalty shoot-out at Dundee Ice Arena last night.
Although losing the shoot-out, Stars showed great character to come from 4-1 down in the second period to tie the match at 4-4 and gain a point.
With Stars already having qualified for the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup, last night’s clash was the final game in the group stages.
Stars coach Marc LeFebvre said: “We wanted to win in Braehead to keep our sights set on the conference and Joe Fallon won us that game — he was outstanding.
“Clan are a great hockey team but that was what I call an ugly road win and we have to win games like that.
Despite losing on penalties last night, LeFebvre was delighted with the character shown by his men.
He added: “What I am pleased with is the way the guys reacted to going 4-1 down. Apart from a seven-minute period at the start of the second period, I felt we were the better team.
“I said after the defeat in Edinburgh on Wednesday that we needed to score more goals and we did that by netting seven from our two games and picked up three points in the process.”
On Saturday in Braehead it was a physical opening period and it came to a head on four minutes when Stars’ Justin Faryna and Clan’s Jay Rosehill dropped the gloves — both were give a five-minute major for fighting.
Two minutes later, Dundee took the l ead when Kevin Hart’s shot beat Michal Zajkowski.
Braehead’s Scott Pitt took a two-minute penalty for hooking on 14 minutes and, on the resultant powerplay, Stars doubled their lead with a strike from Brett Switzer.
Clan withdrew goalie Zajkowski through injury at the beginning of the middle session and replaced him with Gary Russell.
The home side stepped up the pressure in the stanza but couldn’t find a way past Joe Fallon in the Dundee nets.
Stars made a breakthrough in the final period when Felix Poulin scored to make it 3-0 after 47 minutes.
Again Clan pressed the visitors’ goal only to find Fallon in outstanding form.
In Dundee Ice Arena last night, Braehead had a powerplay chance on 10 minutes when Stars’ Joey Sides was given two minutes for slashing.
The visitors took advantage when Matt Keith converted the first goal of the night.
Stars responded and with just under t wo minutes remaining i n the opening stanza, Felix Poulin grabbed the equaliser for his second goal of the weekend.
Clan made a blistering start after the break and scored three ti mes within t hree minutes through Cody Carlson, Scott Pitt and Mike Hammond.
New signing, Kevin Bruijsten grabbed his first goal for Stars when he converted an assist from Joey Sides on 31 minutes.
Four minutes into the third period, Stars got to within one of their opponents when Vinny Scarsella netted and, six minutes later, they levelled the fixture at 4-4 when Sides struck the equaliser with assist from Bruijsten.
There was no further scoring so it went to a penalty shoot-out where Clan took the extra point with a win on penalty shots.
Fife Flyers suffered two losses at the hands of Sheffield Steelers over the weekend, going down 4-1 in Sheffield on Saturday and 4-2 in Kirkcaldy last night.
It means that Flyers are currently now on a four game losing streak.