Stars have plan to Storm home with valuable win

Dundee Stars are aiming to build on their big derby win when they face Manchester Storm away tonight.

Dundee come into the midweek match off the back of an uplifting 4-1 win over Fife Flyers. Stars completed a perfect record of four home wins out of four against their rivals.

With only four home games remaining for Stars and 13 matches left in the regular season, head coach Omar Pacha takes his team on the road for the next two weeks. Tonight’s trip to Manchester is followed by a short hop across to Kirkcaldy on Saturday before returning to the Storm Shelter seven days later.

Stars are currently occupying the eighth and last play-off spot and sit three points ahead of Storm, who are in 10th and have played one game more than Dundee.

Both teams have been missing players in recent games and Dundee’s injury woes forced Pacha to lace up his skates for a second season in a row.

François Bouchard has been ruled out for the rest of the season but will remain with the club as part of Pacha’s staff.

Defenders Mike Sullivan and Petr Chaloupka have been sidelined with facial injuries but Chaloupka could return before the end of the month.

Stars centreman Jordan Cownie believes a few days off between their 5-1 loss to Glasgow Clan and 4-1 win over Fife allowed them to take a fresh approach.

He said: “Going five in a row, not really getting the bounces and getting a win was hard – but it was good to get a good week of practice under us and it showed on Sunday.

“We were fresh and playing with fresh minds, which obviously led to a good result and that’s huge going into Wednesday.”

He added: “We have been playing a lot of games recently, we are 47 into the year, so to get one then a couple of days later another one then a couple of days later another, it will be good to kind of reset and refresh going into the next game.”

The Dundonian knows it will be tough in Manchester but is confident his coach will have the right game plan to win two valuable points.

He said: “I think going down there is always a tough game in their little barn but I am sure Pach will have a game plan and if we stick to the plan, we will be fine.”