Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
ROUND-UP Stars hit back to consolidate seventh place
DUNDEE CCS Stars came back from a 4-1 defeat against Nottingham Panthers in Dundee Ice Arena on Friday to record an emphatic 6-3 victory over Manchester Storm in Altrincham on Saturday.
This was despite going 2-0 behind for the second time in a week against the Lancashire outfit.
It was a result that consolidated their seventh spot in the league, one point ahead of Coventry Blaze with a game in hand and three points in front of Storm with just two regular season games left.
In Altrincham on Saturday, Stars found themselves behind after 10 minutes with a powerplay goal from Cody Cartier. Stars’ Mikael Lidhammar was awarded two plus two for holding and Manchester made the extra man count. Cartier then made it 2-0.
With four minutes gone in the middle session, Stars’ Scott Brannon and Storm’s Trevor Johnson were sent to the penalty box for fighting and Johnson was joined by playercoach Omar Pasha who, clearly unhappy with the decision, was given two minutes for abuse of the official.
Stars made the powerplay count when Felix Poulin fired in a slapshot to bring the game back to 2-1.
Dallas Ehrhardt’s t wo minute penalty for holding on 30 minutes was again to prove costly for Manchester when Kevin Bruijsten scored into the top of the net to tie the game at 2-2.
Bruijsten was again a thorn in Manchester’s side when he put Dundee ahead for the first time i n t he game on 33 minutes with another shot that flew into the top of the net.
Stars dominated the second period, outshooting their opponents by 13 shots to five.
Storm rallied at the beginning of the final session and levelled the game after 42 minutes with a hat-trick goal from Cartier.
Then, with seven minutes left, Stars stamped t heir authority on the proceedings. Darian Dzuirzynski picked up a t wo minute minor for hooking and, on the powerplay, the Taysiders regained the lead when a Felix Poulin shot found the net.
With one minute remaining, Storm pulled goalie, Mike Clemente in favour of the extra skater but Stars gained possession and Justin Faryna scored into the empty net to make it 5-3.
Storm continued with Clemente sitting it out but again it was Stars who took advantage as Bruijsten completed his hat-trick with another empty net goal with nine seconds left in the game to give Dundee a 6-3 win.
It was a terrific performance from Stars who, for the second time in a week, had to come back from a 2-0 deficit to take the points against Manchester.
On Friday, Nottingham took the lead through Dan Spang.
Brad Moran made it 2-0 before Felix Poulin brought it back to 2-1.
Two minutes into the third period, Panthers added a third goal through David Clarke before Spang grabbed his second of the game on 49 minutes to seal the game for the English side with a 4-1 victory.
Coach Marc LeFebvre said: “I was disappointed by the way we played the last 17 minutes against Nottingham, possibly the worst we have played in a while. We outplayed them for two periods, had them on the ropes then gave away a goal out of nothing.
“Storm came out to try and push us around but the guys fought back and it worked.
“Kevin Bruijsten deserved his Man of the Match. We brought him in to score goals and he certainly has done that, scoring another hat-trick.”