Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
ROUND-UP Narrow losses mean only one point for Stars
DUNDEE CCS Stars took one point from four from their two weekend games but it could have been so much more.
Stars went down 4-3 after penalty shots to Edinburgh Capitals on Friday and then by 5-4 to Sheffield Steelers after coming back from a 2-0 first period deficit.
On Friday, in a very tight first period, it was Edinburgh who made the breakthrough on 17 minutes when Mason Wilgosh grabbed the opener.
Stars’ Matt White was called on a two-minute penalty for hooking on 27 minutes and, on the resultant powerplay, the visitors made the extra man count with a second goal from Jared Staal.
The home side pulled a goal back on 32 minutes through Cale Tanaka and, just 40 seconds later, the same player tied the game at 2-2.
Dundee took the lead for the first time in the match when Justin Faryna scored for 3-2 but, 27 seconds later, Jacob Johnson tied the game at 3-3 to take it to sudden death overtime.
With no scoring in the extra period, Capitals sealed the extra point on penalty shots with Matt Tipoff scoring the vital shot.
In Sheffield on Saturday, the home side opened the scoring after only 38 seconds when Mathieu Roy scored.
That was followed by a second goal from Robert Dowd after nine minutes.
At the start of the second period, Stars replaced Joe Fallon with Craig Holland in goal.
Within 28 seconds of the restart, Kevin Bruijsten pulled a goal back for the Taysiders.
This boosted Stars’ confidence and, just three minutes later, Vinny Scarsella levelled the game with a powerplay goal after Andreas Valdix was given two minutes for interference.
Dundee then took the lead for the first time in the match when Bruijsten added his second of the game on 27 minutes.
On 30 minutes, Levi Nelson levelled the game for Steelers and, six minutes later, Sheffield were back in front with Roy scoring his second goal of the match.
Stars responded on 35 minutes when Joey de Concylis levelled with a short-handed goal while Kevin Hart sat out a two-minute minor for delay of the game.
Both teams searched for the winner in the final session and it came with seven minutes remaining in the game.
Dundee’s Mikael Lidhammar was awarded two minutes for holding and, on the powerplay, notched his second of the game to give the home side a 5-4 win and two points.
Coach Marc LeFebvre said: “We let ourselves down a bit on Friday but I have to give great credit to their goalie Fullerton, who played outstandingly well, as he has done against us all season.
“He had a great season at Braehead last year and he is doing so again.
“We needed to take something from the game and, although we got one point, I feel we should have won the game in regulation time.
“We went to Sheffield and lost early goals but battled back to get on level terms with Steelers and were unlucky to lose out to a late goal.
“I can’t fault the character of the players and, if we play like this in our remaining games, then we’ll make the play-offs.
“Once you are in the play-offs then anything can happen, so we need to make sure we get there. I am sure we will.” NHL RESULTS