Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
ROUND-UP Kirkcaldy win sees Stars into the play-offs
DUNDEE CCS Stars qualified for the playoffs after beating Fife Flyers 7-5 in Kirkcaldy on Saturday night.
The result means they will face-off against Braehead Clan in a two-leg battle to see who progresses to the play-off finals weekend in April. Both games will take place this weekend.
Last night, Fife gained a somewhat low-key revenge in a match that was effectively meaningless as they beat Stars in Dundee Ice Arena.
In Kirkcaldy, Stars got off to a great start when they opened the scoring within t wo minutes. Justin Faryna fired in a shot that appeared to hit Shane Owen on the elbow and the puck slid over the line to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
With three minutes on the clock, Flyers squared the game when Chase Schaber’s shot flew high into the net.
On seven minutes, t he Taysiders restored their lead with a goal from Felix Poulin. A rebound off the boards saw the puck fall nicely for the Canadian who slammed it home.
Just one minute after the restart, Fife were level when Carlo Finucci fired home to make it 2-2.
On 25 minutes, Joey Sides found himself open in front of goal and he had the easiest of tasks to score to put Dundee back in front.
After Ryan Dingle fired a shot wide of the visitors’ nets, Stars went on the counterattack and Poulin scored his second of the game to give them a 4-2 lead.
Another Stars attack in the 36th minute saw Scott Brannon add a fifth goal to put them in a commanding lead going into the final stanza.
Fife quickly got themselves back into the game with just one minute gone in the third period when Matt Sisca brought the scoreline back to 5-3.
Flyers’ tails were up at this stage and the home fans’ hopes of a comeback were raised when Chris Wands made it 5-4 on 46 minutes.
These hopes took a blow on 51 minutes when a shot from Faryna took a huge rebound off Owen and Cale Tanaka was on hand to fire the puck into the net to put Stars 6-4 in front.
With one minute left, Wands added his second of the game to make it 6-5 and set up a grandstand finish.
Flyers called a time-out and pulled goalie Owen in favour of the extra skater.
As the home side pressed the opposing nets, Stars gained possession and broke free as Faryna fired into the empty net for a 7-5 win and secured play-off hockey.
In Dundee Ice Arena last night, Stars were without Scott Brannon and started with back-up netminder Craig Holland.
It was Flyers who bagged the opener after eight minutes when Philippe Paquet scored and, three minutes later, Kyle Haines doubled the visitors’ advantage as they took their 2-0 lead i nto the middle session.
On 25 minutes, Stars pulled a goal back when the in-form Kevin Bruijsten found the net with an assist from Matt White.
However, j ust over one minute later, Paquet grabbed his second of the game to put Fife 3-1 ahead.
Flyers made it 4-1 on 28 minutes through Ryan Dingle.
Mikael Lidhammar struck on 31 minutes to bring the game back to 4-2.
Stars started the second period trailing by two goals and had a powerplay chance on 48 minutes when Fife’s Kyle Haines was given two minutes for high sticks.
That was followed t wo minutes later with another powerplay with Paquet sitting out two minutes for tripping. Fife killed both penalties and the score remained at 4-2.
Both played out the final minutes with neither able to find the net, as Flyers won 4-2 — but Saturday’s result put Stars in the play-offs.