Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Pacha urges his to it in a drive to
KITMART Dundee Stars have a huge weekend ahead as they can move into the play-off spots with a win over Manchester Storm while, at the same time, looking to cause an upset against Cardiff Devils.
A win tomorrow at home to Manchester would lift Dundee into the Elite League top eight, if results go their way, and they would only be one point behind seventh-placed Storm.
Stars need to bounce back after losing 3-1 at home to Fife Flyers on their last outing – Matt Carter finding the net for the Dundee side.
Storm also lost their last game, beaten 3-2 by Fife.
Dundee have won both games at home against Ryan Finnerty’s Storm this season but lost on all three trips down to Altrincham and this is the last meeting between the two teams in the regular season.
Storm have out-scored Dundee 15-10 across five games.
Stars will still be one man down as forward Alex Schoenborn remains out through injury.
Looking ahead to the weekend, Stars head coach Omar Pacha said: “We have to move on from last week because we have a huge game against Manchester and the reality is we need the points.
“Obviously, we expect a better performance. We want to make sure we play with that jump, that speed and that energy that we had recently in Sheffield and bring it all night. So, we need to go out there and be prepared but also play a lot harder.”
With Storm one of their main rivals for a play-off slot, Pacha stresses tomorrow night’s clash is pivotal to their hopes.
He added: “It is massive.
“This is a four-point swing and we don’t know which two teams are going to get those last two spots.
“Manchester are one of the teams who are competing with us, so we need to make sure we do the job at home.
“We have put ourselves in a position to take care of business at home with the game against
Manchester and later on Glasgow, when they come here.
“Those two games are crucial and, if we do the job at home, we will put ourselves in an even better position for the final few games.”
To win any points this weekend the Stars boss has demanded a more assertive approach from his players.
He continued: “Firstly, we need to play more aggressively, we need to be playing with speed and