Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Comets’ 21-goal streak earns place in play-offs
DUNDEE Comets are on their way to this weekend’s Scottish National League Play-off Finals after a convincing 9-0 quarter-final second-leg victory over local rivals Dundee Tigers to secure a 21-1 aggregate score.
Game one the previous Sunday effectively ended any hopes the Tigers may have had of making the showcase tournament when the Comets inflicted a heavy 12-1 defeat.
The second tie was to be more of the same but saw Comets rest the SNL’s top scorer John Dolan along with the league’s leading goaltender Matthew Michie. Also not icing were Daniel Topping, Billy Hogg, Shaun Smith, Jamie Whitelaw, Allan Hamilton and Drew Rumgay through injury, illness and work commitments.
This allowed youngsters Charlie Scott and Shawn McBride to play full games and both players showed great potential.
Back-up goalie Bryan Morris was also given the chance to shine, which he duly did by recording his first full game shutout and Man-of-the-Match award for his performance in the net.
Adam McNicoll was top scorer with a hat-trick, followed by Ross Johnston and Sam McCluskey with two apiece while single counters from Andy Henderson and Michal Beca completed the scoring in a relatively penalty-free encounter.
Comet coaches Rab Brown and John Gordon said: “The team are working well and we asked them to play the full 60 minutes, which they did.
“We have to graft all through the game in all three zones to be successful in the big fixtures ahead of us.”
Tigers coach Ian Carstairs said after Sunday’s game: “We went in with a positive mindset and competed well for the first 30 minutes or so. The players stuck to their jobs and we created chances but couldn’t put them away.
“That lack of prowess in front of the net stung us as we started to sit back as the game progressed which allowed Comets to come at us. We were pressurised in to more and more defensive errors and the game ended as a total blowout.”
Looking back on this year’s campaign, he continued: “We’ve not had a good season and fell way short of our targets.
“We suffered early on from injuries and played a lot of games without key players but had a run of games midway through the season where we showed potential before falling away again.
“We’ll be looking to add three or four quality players to the core of the team, who are already committed to return.
“We’re focused on getting back on the ice after a short break and we’ll be arranging some pre-season games to get the team ready for the puck to drop in the SNL in September.”