Stars ace confident Panthers can win Elite Series

DUNDEE Stars’ Craig Garrigan has been playing for Nottingham Panthers in the Elite League’s mini-season and is confident that they can be crowned champions of the Elite Series.

With only four teams competing in the Elite Series, the Dundonian forward was selected by English club for the month-long miniseason and has so far enjoyed his experience in what is a massive platform for young British talent to showcase themselves. The 22-yearold spoke about his love of being back on the ice and competitive action.

“It has been amazing to have hockey back after having a year out, to be on the ice just about every day and to have that busy hockey schedule back has been great,” said Craig.

“I have had a great time down in Nottingham so far and to be part of the mini-series has been a really good experience. To have the opportunity to play for a team like Nottingham so far has been really fun and I’ve loved every minute of it.”

While the Panthers have not had the best start and sit bottom of the four-team league, they are still withing touching distance of the top and also, every team will qualify for the play-offs – where anything can happen.

Discussing his side’s chances, the winger said: “We are all confident that we can win the series. We have had a couple close games where we have been unfortunate not to get any points.

“However, there is a lot of games still to be played so we cannot drop our heads and we need to stay positive. We beat Manchester (Storm) on Wednesday, so hopefully that will bring a lot more confidence to the team and we can go on to play better hockey.”