Shining Stars have Steelers ‘wheeling’ by fighting back

ICE HOCKEY: Pacha hails Dundee point

Head coach Omar Pacha was pleased with Dundee Stars’ comeback as they recovered a point in Sunday’s clash with Sheffield Steelers.

Dundee were 4-1 down before recovering to tie the game at 4-4 and again at 5-5 but would end up losing 6-5 in overtime.

When asked if he would take a point after being 4-1 down, Pacha said: “Yeah absolutely, any time you are down three goals, you would be extremely happy to get a point.

“But I would say the only thing is we put ourselves in that situation to be down 4-1.

“I think overall this team has a lot of potential but it is about finding the right balance between offence and defence.

“You saw when we play well defensively, we get more chances.”

On Saturday night the Stars were beaten 5-1 by the Nottingham Panthers at home, 24 hours before their loss to Sheffield.

Pacha said: “I don’t think defensively we were as sharp as we wanted to be and we conceded too many goals this weekend, so we have to get back to the drawing board on that.

“On Saturday I thought for the first 10 minutes we were really good and then in the next 10 minutes we allowed two goals.

“However, I liked the fightback on Sunday, down 4-1, scoring powerplay goals and capitalising on the other team’s mistakes and it was great to see.

“We have been lacking confidence in the last few weeks and, when we scored on the powerplay, you saw we were a lot more confident in the way we played.

“It was good to see the guys looking a bit more confident in the third period on Sunday and we earned a valuable point.

“Over the course of the weekend, the boys showed a lot of character and their work ethic was great.

Dundee have struggled to find a consistent balance between defence and attack in the past few weeks.

Pacha explained: “The issue I have is finding the right balance between playing well offensively or playing well defensively.

“We just have to come together as a team, understand the basics and understand our system and I think good things will happen with this group.”

The Stars were dealt another blow as defenseman Reilly O’Connor missed Sunday’s game.

The rookie has a broken finger with Pacha describing the injury as “really unfortunate.”