The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Stars’ season closes with defeat in Belfast
Dundee: Late goals close gap, but Giants run out comfortable winners
Another valiant performance from Stars yesterday in their final Elite League game of the season was not enough to secure a positive result.
Craig Holland started for Dundee, who were without Malcolm Gould, Riley Stadel and Chris Lawrence.
Play went from end-to-end in the opening five minutes but neither goalie was really tested.
Giants saw off the first power play of the evening and took the lead in the 11th minute when a shot was tipped up in the air by Brendan Connolly and Blair Riley tucked home the rebound.
Andrew Dickson made a good save to keep Giants ahead and Brian Hart was denied from point-blank range on a feed from Lukas Lundvald.
Sebastien Sylvestre stretched the home lead after a two-on-one at 16:10 and, just 49 seconds later, Darcy Murphy tipped a shot in front of Holland after Kevin Raine fired a quick shot from the face-off and the redirect by Murphy was enough to find the net.
Stars needed a response and Marcolivier Mimar fired in a shot, but Dickson made the save and Adam Keefe’s side went 4-0 up as Sylvestre beat Holland on his near post.
Dundee started the second period on the power play and Johan Andersson gave them an early boost as he sent a shot over the glove of Dickson on 21:26.
Andersson then denied Sylvestre as the Belfast player got into a dangerous area and Connolly missed a big chance to restore the four-goal lead after beating Holland, but his shot went wide.
The Stars goaltender made an excellent save when he gloved a shot from Sylvestre as Stars slowly edged their way back into the game.
Omar Pacha was boxed on a hooking call and the hosts had a big chance before the buzzer but Holland got his stick up to deflect Jonathan Ferland’s shot on to the bar.
Dundee went down to just three skaters as Anthony Mastrodicasa was charged with holding with 32 seconds to play and a one-timer from Spiro Goulakos at 39:57 made it 5-1.
Stars punished Giants’ ill-discipline when Lundvald slapped a shot into the top corner in the 43rd minute and Holland produced a series of stunning saves to deny Belfast.
Inglis was penalised for hooking in the 48th minute and Ferland redirected a slap-shot past the Stars keeper to make it 6-2.
That became 7-2 when Jarret played a pass off the boards to send Connolly in on goal and, despite Holland getting to his shot, it still trickled through.
Dundee responded as Lundvald played a pass in front to Jordan Cownie and he netted Stars’ third at 54:22, but straight after the face-off Sylvestre grabbed his hat-trick.
Andersson netted his second and then set up Cody Carlson for Dundee’s fifth goal in the final minute to complete the scoring.