The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
oacha urges stars to play to their strengths in derby
Dundee head coach eyes place in top eight ahead of Operation Sell-out clash
Dundee Stars are hoping for their biggest crowd of the season tonight as they face oldest rivals Fife Flyers.
‘Operation Sell-out’ has been brought in to pack the Dundee Ice Arena for the massive game and pre-sales have already surpassed the previous record in Stars’ Elite League era.
The last sell-out at Dundee Ice Arena was last season when Dundee defeated Braehead in the play-off quarter-finals first leg before a win in Glasgow sent Stars to their first final-four weekend in Nottingham.
The Tayside team have been boosted by the return of captain Chris Lawrence after he was injured against Fife in September.
He scored in the game before Stars went on to win 7-5, they also won 4-2 at home in December.
Flyers won the first two meetings in Kirkcaldy 5-1.
Stars head coach Omar Pacha has his team on a play-off push and they have climbed into 10th place in the league standings, just two spots off the final playoff place.
Stars have quickly narrowed the gap between conference rivals Braehead Clan to just three points with Dundee having three games in hand over Clan.
They are a single point behind ninth-placed Coventry Blaze and still have to face the English side twice in March.
As his side prepared for a big weekend, Pacha said: “It is great to go on this run and the confidence is high, but we have to remember what we do well and to do that going into the weekend.
“We want to keep playing Stars hockey – fast and around the net – and we want to play a good game system and overall I thought Sunday we were better in our system than Saturday.
“We want to use our speed as we truly believe we are one of the fastest teams in the league, so we want use that as our strength.
“Also we have to make sure we clean up a bit defensively – it is going to be tight until the end of the year so we have to make sure that we are a solid team in our own zone. I think things are going well just now but obviously we are not content with where we are in the standings.
“We are still in 10th place and haven’t won anything yet. We are not in a play-off spot so it’s really important to keep going and keep progressing, getting better week by week.
“This weekend we can possibly get ourselves into the top eight. Also it is really important to push for that conference and we are so close now as with a few wins we could be right behind Fife.
“We want make sure we keep pushing in the conference so those last few games against Fife actually mean something in the conference.”
Dundee travel to Edinburgh tomorrow for another Gardiner Conference clash. Stars claimed a 2-1 shoot-out last time they visited Murrayfield.
Tonight’s game faces-off at 7pm. Tickets are selling fast but can still be purchased via the box office and online.