The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Dundee Stars and Fife Flyers look to end ice hockey year on high notes
Confident Dundee aim to end year on high
Dundee Stars travel to Glasgow tomorrow for another conference clash with Braehead Clan and are aiming to make amends after letting a 2-1 lead slip on their last visit.
This is just the second meeting between the Scottish rivals this season and the Tayside team came close to taking all the points in the first match.
Dundee took the lead twice, first through Malcolm Gould and again through Riley Stadel, but goals from Tyler Shattock, Mike Embach and Tyler Scofield saw John Tripp’s side secure a 3-2 victory.
Dundee defenceman Anthony Mastrodicasa, who has earned praise from head coach Omar Pacha for his impact since returning to the side after missing a large amount of the season through injury, said: “We are feeling confident going into the weekend.
“These two points are huge, not only for the standings but to end this year on a good note and moving forward into the second half of the season.”
Dundee have been hit hard with injuries all season and were stunned by another departure this week.
Justin Fox was a late addition to the squad, but the Ontario native quit after playing just 17 games.
Pacha is actively searching for replacements to fill their three empty roster spots.
Stars are now two imports short of the maximum allowed after Canadian forward Taylor Dickin departed earlier in the month along with British defenceman Cam Mcgiffin.
The Dundee side have put together three straight league wins on home ice but have lost their last two away games over the Christmas period.
Braehead snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 3-2 win over Belfast Giants in Glasgow before slipping past, bottom of the league Edinburgh 3-1.
The Gardiner Conference champions have won just seven of their 13 home games and sit two places above Stars in ninth place in the Elite League.
Fife Flyers assistant coach Jeff Hutchins admitted that his side possibly “under-estimated” Guildford Flames when they made their first visit to Fife Ice Arena.
That won’t happen again tonight, he insists.
Hutchins is looking to build on last Sunday’s 2-1 road win in Surrey when Ian Young scored 12 seconds into the overtime period to take the points to Kirkcaldy.
Paul Dixon’s team skated to a shock 5-3 win at Rosslyn Street on October 8 and they followed up with a 6-1 victory in England on November 19.
But Hutchins said that result followed a superb comeback from 5-1 down to beat league champions, Cardiff Devils, 8-6 only 24 hours earlier in the principality.
Hutchins was proud of the effort of his men at Guildford and delighted that they followed-up with a 10-1 victory over Capitals on Boxing Day.
Fife just kept on coming and sticking to their game plan and Hutchins, a former Great Britain international, said: “Our aim is to come out of the game against Guildford and the trip to Edinburgh on Sunday with full points.
“That would be a great way to round off the year as a whole.”
Fife have won six, drawn one and lost one of their eight games in the last month of the year. And the Edinburghbased coach said: “We want to continue our recent run.
“Guildford are a good club and are up near the top of the standings.
“I watched Edinburgh for two periods in their midweek win over Braehead and they will battle.
“We’re not looking ahead of our next game and we want the two points against Guildford before we think about Edinburgh.”