The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Flyers disaster
Fourteen straight defeats for Fife but Stars edge out Glasgow.
Stars claimed full points after a penalty shoot-out win over their Scottish rivals on Saturday night.
The victory closed the gap between them and the play-off spots to just a single point after eighth-placed Manchester lost 4-0 to Coventry last night.
Stars head coach Omar Pacha said: “It is a huge extra point. Of all the games where there is an extra point we needed then it was definitely tonight’s.
“I thought from the drop of the puck we were dialled in. We talked about how we wanted to play on the road for the remainder of the season but especially tonight in Glasgow and next week in Fife.
“We wanted to be tighter defensively and make smarter decisions with the puck.
“Defensively, I thought we played a great game but anytime you go on the road you need some really solid goaltending and we got that but overall I really liked the way we played.”
Clan had the first opportunities as they generated the early attacks but the match was still goalless after the first 18 minutes.
Both sides had played a clean and low tempo game but after Glasgow’s early pressure, they spent most of the middle section of the first period preventing Dundee from finding a route to goal.
Clan finally broke the deadlock with 100 seconds left in the opening period when Chad Rau redirected Travis Ehrhardt’s shot past Dundee goaltender Alex Leclerc.
In the second session, the home side almost doubled their lead as Rasmus Bjerrum played in Matt Haywood but he was denied.
Minutes later Dundee created their first attack of the middle period and made it count, as Egils Kalns fired a low shot that slipped through the grasp of Clan keeper Patrick Killeen to tie the game in the 23rd minute.
The match fell back into the back and forth pattern but the third goal came after 35 minutes and it was for the Tayside team.
Dundee’s Anthony Beauregard stole possession from Linden Springer in front of his own net and the Canadian forward swiftly turned and slung the puck past Killeen at his left-hand post.
There was a brief powerplay chance for Clan as Stars captain Matt Marquardt picked up the first penalty of the game with just 54 seconds left to play in the second stanza but Pacha’s men were still in front going into the third.
Dundee did manage to protect their lead until they were back to full strength and then went straight back on the attack, however Colton Kroeker was unable to stretch his side’s advantage with two opportunities.
Zack Fitzgerald’s side found a bit of puck luck to tie the game on 47 minutes.
Leclerc made a blocker save on Matt Pufhal’s shot but the rebound dropped for Marcus Jonsson and the Swede twisted away from his marker to push the puck home.
Neither team could find a winner before the 60 minutes of regulation time expired, so the match went into suddendeath overtime.
After Marquardt and Beauregard were denied, home netminder Kileen came up with two key saves late in the extra period to deny Matt Beca one-onone and then Scott Pitt.
A shoot-out was required to find a winner and Nolan LaPorte and Kalns both scored before Bjerrum and Marquardt were denied. Rau and Dundee’s Matt Carter failed to convert but Kevin Dufour beat Killeen after Leclerc saved Travis Ehrhardt’s effort.
Former Dundee player Michael Lidhammar had to score to keep the home team in the game but his shot went wide and Pacha’s side took the extra point to keep the pressure on Manchester Storm, who lost in overtime to Guildford Flames on Saturday before last night’s shut-out in Coventry.
The Stars have two important matches this weekend as they visit Fife Flyers before hosting Guildford.