Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Stars coach
DUNDEE Stars ice hockey team went into the weekend’s games on a four-game winning streak — and they increased that to five on Saturday with a 4-3 win away to Milton Keynes Lightning.
Back in Dundee last night, Stars fell to a 7-3 defeat from Braehead Clan.
Coach Omar Pacha said after the Clan loss: “We played well in Milton Keynes and deserved the win.
“The guys put in a huge amount of effort and we dominated.
“Tonight we we made mistakes and the turnover for their fourth goal was a defining moment.
“Fatigue played a part tonight although I can’t fault the effort the players put in.
“The main thing was we didn’t score in the first period and not until late in the second. At that time we were chasing the game.
“It’s frustrating because we are a good team.”
Against Milton Keynes, Stars went into the game missing five players.
Chris Lawrence and Johan Andersson were still out with their long-term injures and were joined by Adam Hardin, Anthony Mastrodicasa and Marc-Olivier Mimar.
Dundee got off to the worst possible start when Lightning scored after only 34 seconds through Kevin King.
Stars tied the game on three minutes with a shot from Malcolm Gould.
Just 17 seconds later, Christian Isackson restored the home side’s lead.
King then added his second goal of the game on nine minutes.
Four minutes later, Lightning’s Evan Stoflet received a two-minute penalty for tripping and he was joined in the sin bin just one minute later by Matt Nickerson, who was penalised for slashing. This left Stars on a oneminute five on three.
The visitors made the two extra men count when Gould grabbed his second goal to bring the contest back to 3-2.
With just one minute gone in the middle session, Stars tied the game when a shot from the blueline by Lukas Lundvald Nielsen flew past Miika Wiikman in Lightning’s net.
Both had a powerplay opportunity at the beginning of the third stanza but neither could take advantage of the extra man.
On 51 minutes, Lightning’s Isackson was awarded a two-minute penalty for holding stick and, on the powerplay the Elite League Player of the Week, Gabriel Levesque, fired home.