The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Pacha’ s Stars out to rise and shine
Dundee Stars will turn out in Scotland’s first professional ice hockey clash in over 18 months tonight, when they tackle local rivals Fife Flyers.
This is Dundee’s first fixture of the 2021-2022 campaign and is also the first of two exhibition matches this weekend, as the Flyers will play hosts tomorrow evening.
Both teams have a fresh look after a lot of new arrivals this summer, but the Stars have managed to keep hold of key players, such as defenceman Drydn Dow, who penned a twoyear deal this summer and Dundonian winger Craig Garrigan.
Meanwhile, the Flyers have retained the services of blueliner James Isaacs and forward Bari McKenzie.
Todd Dutiaume’s men will travel to Dundee with a real hunger to claim the first Tayside derby victory of the season, but Omar Pacha’s side will be determined not to disappoint their own fans.
Looking ahead to his side’s first outing, Stars head coach Pacha said: “It is the first professional game back in the all of Scotland for the last 18 months.
“I expect it to be highpaced and I expect both teams will be wanting to impress their fanbases.
“For us, it is about the things we worked on this week in training and to give a good first impression to our fans.
“We are going to see some combinations tonight that I am looking forward to seeing how they do.
“We are definitely a lot bigger and a lot faster, so hopefully we will see that translate into the game, but at the same time it is hard to say when you have only seen the team in practice.
“However, even if it is a pre-season game, we are looking to find aspects that we need to work on before next week’s season opener.”
The Stars boss then shared his excitement to get back behind the bench and play in front of his side’s fans again.
He said: “It is really exciting, it feels like a different preseason because it has been so long.
“So, I am looking forward to getting back out there and hopefully we all learn a lot this weekend.
“I know the players are really excited for the first game in Dundee and they know it is going to be close to a sell-out crowd.
“There is a lot of excitement around the game, it is no secret but it’s all because of the return of hockey.”
Now in his third season with Dundee, defender Dow knows exactly how intense these derbies can be but the Canadian is looking forward to getting back out there.
He said: “We are all feeling good, it is a little sore getting back into it, but we are all really excited to get going this weekend.
“The team is looking really sharp and we have a ton of speed which is really good to see, and it is a really good group of guys which has helped us gel pretty quickly.”
He added: “It is a new bunch of guys for both teams, but I think everyone knows the rivalry between the two teams is intense, so I expect a hard-fought couple of games.”
Face-off tonight is 7.30pm at the Dundee Ice Arena.