The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Full-strength Stars ready for key clash
Dundee men must win remaining five games to seal play-off place
Dundee Stars face another huge weekend as the race for the final play-off spot is going down to the wire and for the first time in months they will be playing at full-strength.
Head coach Omar Pacha will have his entire squad to pick from as he welcomes the return of the only injured player, assistant captain Joey De Concilys, who is fit again for action.
They start the weekend off tonight with a trip to Coventry to face their playoff rivals as the Blaze look to extend their one-point lead over Dundee.
Stars must win all five of their remaining games if they are to be within a chance of making the playoffs.
Blaze have just four games left and if they beat Dundee that could knock the Taysiders out of the race for the playoffs.
But Stars forward Marc-Olivier Mimar is confident his side can make the play-offs and says his team are “excited” for the upcoming games.
“There is a great atmosphere around the room, the guys are excited for this weekend,” he revealed.
“Coventry are a good offensive team with great speed up front, we have to work hard in their end and put pucks deep to tire out their defence men.
“We need to put pucks on net and get a lot of traffic in front, also limit the turnovers at the blue line and keep pressuring them constantly on the ice.
“Special teams will make a big difference in the outcome of the game.
“We have what it takes to be there, it is going to be a tight race until the end and we believe we can get that eighth spot.”
Pacha was proud of his team’s efforts over the last week and has emphasised how important tonight’s game in Coventry is.
“It was great to get those points, we had to play a quite a few games in a row and it was a tough week, but we managed to get four wins form the five games in eight days,” he said.
“It is a good accomplishment but obviously we would have preferred to get the 10 points but any time you win four out of five it is a good feeling.
“Every game started pretty close and we scored a lot of goals during the week so that was nice to see, and I liked the overall play of the team.
“Everyone is very motivated. I think pressure is on every team that is competing for that last play-off spot, but we will see who can thrive under that pressure.
“For us we came from the back to put ourselves in a really good position to make the play-offs and whatever happens, happens but to get where we are now is a good accomplishment.
“However, it would be an even better accomplishment and to achieve our main goal which is to creep into that play-off spot. We have five games left and I expect us to play hard for those five games, starting on Saturday.
“It is going to be massive, we have played really tight games all year against Coventry, so we expect something very similar.
“They came into our building and got the points, so we want to go into their building and steal points.”
He also said he believes his side can make it to the play-offs and that they deserve a spot in the post-season.
He added: “Yes, I think we do have what it takes to make the play-offs. Saturday will most likely be our first game with 14 imports.
“We have battled through a lot this year, we stayed composed and managed all the injuries and the guys stepped up at different times through the season.
“I do think we are worthy of that playoff spot and we will give it the best shot possible.”
Dundee face rivals Fife Flyers for the last time in the regular season when they host their biggest rivals tomorrow at 5pm.
Stars claimed a huge 4-1 win in Kirkcaldy the last time the two teams met, but Todd Dutiaume’s men currently sit in fourth place while Dundee battle for eighth.