Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Storm damage putting Clan to
KITMART Dundee Stars came up with a big victory live on television on Friday night to start off the Elite League’s first-ever Pride We e ke n d b e fo r e they slipped to a defeat on the road last night.
Stars won 6-3 against Scottish rivals Glasgow Clan at the start of the weekend but failed to make their chances count as they were shut out by Manchester Storm yesterday.
Speaking after his side’s 3-0 loss to Storm, Stars head coach Omar Pacha said: “I thought in the first period we were OK – not very good but OK.
“Obviously the second period was a very bad period of hockey, we turned over the puck twice, they counter and, with a bit of O-Zone time, they scored.
“We looked, at times, dangerous but our finishing touch around the net just wasn’t there.”
Dundee also saw their injury list grow to three key players as forward Alex Schoenborn did not play against Manchester after sustaining a lower-body injury on Friday.
Last night, both teams came out with a high tempo but the match was still scoreless after 20 minutes, despite some key chances for each side.
Pacha’s men still had powerplay time to start the second period but the home side were able to kill off the final part of the penalty.
Although Dundee kept the pressure on Manchester, they fell behind after taking their first penalty of the night.
With a delayed penalty against
Dundee, Storm got an extra attacker out on the ice and worked the puck around before Jared Aulin sent a pass across the face of goal to the back post for Mario Puskarick to fire home on 26 minutes.
The Tayside team hit more penalty trouble in the 32nd minute as Brett Stovin was punished for a tripping foul and that allowed Ryan Finnerty’s men to double their advantage.
This time it was Tyson Fawcett who found the twine, as he released a fast wrist shot from the left wing and it beat Alex Leclerc high on his near post after just 52 seconds of powerplay time.
Then, 33 seconds later, things got worse for Dundee as Mathieu Gagnon made it 3-0 after he beat Leclerc with a rising shot from just inside the blue line.
In the third session, Dundee dominated but the closest they came to scoring was when one shot hit the post.
The Scottish side bombarded their opponents for the rest of the game but they were continually denied by home goalie Ginn, who was in sensational form.