The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Stars look to turn luck around in Kirkcaldy
Coach Pacha stresses need to ‘stay out of the box’
DUNDEE STARS
Dundee Stars aim to turn their luck around against high-flying rivals Fife Flyers in this weekend’s double-header.
Omar Pacha’s side are in Kirkcaldy tonight as they seek to end a run of four straight losses, while fifth-placed Fife – the Gardiner Conference leaders – bid to close the gap on their top-four rivals.
Stars have had a good run against Flyers in 2018, winning four of the six previous meetings against their ‘auld rivals’, with Dundee winning all their home games.
Fife claimed two 5-1 victories in Kirkcaldy but lost 7-6 on a shoot-out after Dundee pulled off a remarkable comeback from 5-2 down to take the lead 6-5 before Flyers took the game into overtime, then a shoot-out. Malcolm Gould’s penalty shot sealed Stars’ first win in Kirkcaldy this year.
The DIA has been a fortress of late for Dundee as they have recorded 7-5 and 4-2 wins plus, most recently, a 4-3 overtime win over their rivals.
Defenceman Anthony Mastrodicasa believes the Stars are playing good hockey despite their run of defeats and losing to a late power-play goal against Belfast Giants on Wednesday.
He said: “Last week was disappointing, to say the least, but we have been playing good hockey. Any one of those games could have gone our way.
“At this point in our season we’re playing great hockey, which makes us confident going into the weekend.”
When asked about how to continue their good results in Fife, he added: “I think we just need to keep playing our game, stick to the system and try and stay out of the box because we know we can play with any team five-on-five.
“Fife are a good team but we have struggled against them when we weren’t playing good hockey and battling injuries.
“Usually in those games, if we make mistakes they capitalised on it and it made it harder for us to come back.
“It’s pretty obvious if we don’t string together a lot of wins and points, with the season running out of time, we give ourselves no chance of making the playoffs. So every game is crucial to win.
“Every single guy on the team knows the goal, which is to make the play-offs, and you can tell with our play so far in 2018 that we want it and we’re going to play every game coming forward to win.”
Pacha sees this weekend as another opportunity for his side to “bring it” against another tough opponent.
He said: “It’s been a tough week. We played some decent hockey and there was some game-changing moments against Braehead that were uncontrollable because of the decisions by the referees.
“Then the other night I think the better team lost.
“It was unfortunate and, five-on-five, I think we took it to Belfast.
“It is one of the first times as a coach I can confidently say we outplayed Belfast five-on-five and we deserved to win.
“It’s tough and doesn’t make it any easier against Fife, but there are positives to take into the weekend. “We have got to keep moving.
“It is important to stay out of the box. When we had success winning nine out of 10 games this year it was because we managed to stay out the box, and if we stay disciplined I am confident we will be fine.
“We won once in Fife, so there is no reason why we cannot do it again.
“It is a tough barn to play in and we are going to have to bring it to them and in the same mindset we had in Belfast, but with a bit more of a killer instinct on the powerplay and five-on-five.”