Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
ROUND-UP Stars let Clan claim revenge after away win
DUNDEE CCS Stars had mixed fortunes at the weekend.
They travelled to Braehead on Saturday to collect both points in a 6-4 win, only to lose 6-3 in the return fixture in Dundee last night.
In Braehead on Saturday, Stars got off to a flying start after only 13 seconds when Brett Switzer and Mikael Lidhammar combined f or Kevin Hart to net his 10th goal of the season.
Dundee increased their lead on 14 minutes when Joey Sides set up Switzer to give the Taysiders a 2-0 advantage.
With three minutes left in the opening period, Clan’s Craig Peacock was given two minutes for holding and, on the resultant powerplay, Justin Faryna struck to give the visitors a 3-0 lead going into the second stanza.
Clan pulled a goal back with just under two minutes of the restart when Matt Heywood scored.
However, three minutes later, Peacock picked up his second holding penalty of the game and Faryna scored his second powerplay goal of the game to restore Stars’ threegoal advantage at 4-1.
Two minutes into the third, Switzer gained possession in the Clan zone and set up Cale Tanaka, who fired the puck home for a 5-1 lead. Clan got a goal back after 56 minutes when Matt Beca made it 5-2 and, with j ust over three minutes remaining i n the game, the home side pulled the game back to 5-3 with another strike from Beca.
Braehead took off their goalie in favour of the extra skater but Vinny Scarsella scored into the empty net for a 6-3 advantage.
Alex Leavitt pulled a goal back for Clan with seven seconds remaining.
Last night in Dundee Ice Arena, Matt White continued his good scoring run when he opened the scoring for Stars after four minutes but Clan responded with an equaliser from Matt Heywood less than a minute later.
Dundee regained the lead on 10 minutes with a goal from Vinny Scarsella.
Then, with five minutes left in the period, Stars’ Cale Tanaka was given two minutes for tripping and on the powerplay Scott Pitt levelled the game for Braehead.
At the beginning of the middle session, Switzer found himself clear on a one-on-one with Clan’s goalie but Zajkowski made the save.
On 29 minutes, Stars’ goalie Joe Fallon was awarded two minutes for roughing and Clan again took advantage of the powerplay when Beca scored his third goal of the weekend to put the visitors 3-2 ahead.
Just over one minute later Dundee were back on level terms after a great move saw White and Scarsella combine for Felix Poulin to score with a well-timed counter.
Five minutes into the final session Lidhammar was awarded two minutes for delay of the game and, for the third time in the game, Braehead scored on the powerplay when Leavitt put them 4-3 ahead.
Three minutes later, Clan opened up a t wo-goal advantage when Leavitt netted his second of the game to make it 5-3.
Stars called a timeout with five minutes remaining but the visitors sealed their victory with 36 seconds remaining when Pitt added his second of the game to give them a 6-3 victory.
Stars coach Marc LeFebvre said: “After a terrific performance on Saturday we just ran out of gas last night.
“We had two guys missing from the start and lost another at the end of the first period.
“We kept with them right through to the end of the second period then we ran on an empty tank. I can’t fault the guys for their effort.
“We need to rest up over the next couple of days and recover for our cup semi-final against Cardiff on Wednesday.”