The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Dundee Stars steel themselves to turn things around against Sheffield
ICE HOCKEY: Dundee players are steeled for visit of Sheffield
Dundee Stars go into tomorrow’s home clash with Sheffield Steelers after a heart-to-heart talk on their day off.
Back-to-back weekend defeats at home to Guildford Flames and at Edinburgh Capitals have hurt so the squad volunteered to come in yesterday to find a way to win again.
Coach Omar Pacha hopes the get-together will lift his men ahead of the joust with the reigning play-off champions.
Sheffield are fourth in the Elite League table with 23 points from 19 matches and travel north after a 3-1 victory over Coventry Blaze in Yorkshire on Sunday.
Stars are second-bottom of the division with 13 points from 18 fixtures and have lost three games in a row.
There is a six-point gap between Stars and 10th-placed Coventry Blaze who played the same number of games.
Tomorrow’s shift against the Steelers is a tough assignment for the injury-hit home side who were shut-out 5-0 at home by Guildford Flames on Saturday.
Pacha described the performance as “terrible” and said that Stars could not get their passing game going.
On Sunday, they led 1-0 but lost four goals in three astonishing minutes to the league bottom-markers who netted three of the strikes on the power play.
Pacha said: “Sunday was a big improvement from Saturday.
“We played well five-on-five but our penalty kill did not function and they scored three goals out of four in the first period when we were down men and a five-on-three killed us.
“That hurt us and we battled back to 4-3 but lost another power-play goal and we could not find a way back after that.”
He added: “The guys have worked hard in training and this against Sheffield is a big challenge for us as a team.
“We want to get back to winning games and that was why the guys came in on their day off.”
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The guys have worked hard in training OMAR PACHA