The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
‘Crucial’ derby could be key to Stars’ play-off drive
Dundee have won 10 of last 16 to stay in hunt for Elite League finale
Dundee Stars head coach Omar Pacha has described tonight’s final derby clash of the season as “crucial”.
The on-form Dundee side have won 10 of their last 16 matches in a bid to reach the Elite League play-offs.
Last weekend they pulled off a remarkable triumph on the road against league pacesetters the Sheffield Steelers.
Next up at home are the Fife Flyers, whom Stars have beaten four times this season, though only one win has come on Dundee ice.
Fife have endured a miserable season, though they too beat Sheffield last week but crashed 3-2 to the Cardiff Devils on Wednesday despite leading 1-0 with 20 minutes left to play.
Pacha said: “A win is crucial – we only have 11 games left now.
“Every game is basically play-off hockey and when you play the Fife Flyers, your rival team, they will be desperate for points to catch us and we need to catch at least one of the teams in front of us.
“Whenever you play a derby game it is huge but this one counts directly towards the standings and it will have a massive impact on where we are after the weekend.”
Discussing how his side have faired against the Flyers in this year’s campaign, the Stars boss added: “We are 3-1 (winslosses) over there and they are 2-1 here, so it is a pretty even series.
“I think Fife and us are always similar in a sense where we are always taking points off each other but I would like to see us at least finish the series off with a win at home.
“That would not only give us the points but it would also win us the season series 5-3 and that would be a good record.
“Plus, now the Scottish teams are all competing for a play-off spot, it would be nice to be the best Scottish team overall as we have winning records against both Glasgow and Fife.”
Pacha, whose side have lost only one of their last six home games, wants his players to give their fans a performance to be proud of.
He added: “This is a big rivalry and a huge game. We just have to go shift by shift, be ready from the start and hopefully we will come out with the points.”
Dundee defender Jagger Dirk is also expecting their only game of the weekend to be highly entertaining for the fans.
He said: “Well it is no secret that it is a close race between seventh, eighth and ninth right now, so every point is important. Obviously, Fife are one of our big rivals, so we always want to beat them and they always want to beat us, so it is going to be a good game.”
Stars need a strong start, according to the Canadian.
Dirk added: “We just have to come out strong in the first 10 minutes of the game and build some momentum and capitalise on our scoring chances.”
The Kirkcaldy club cannot afford to slip up as they are six points adrift of their rivals.
Todd Dutiaume’s men have played two more games and have only nine league fixtures left before the end of the regular season.
Dutiaume will need another performance like the one they showed against Cardiff if they are to have any chance to making the top eight and qualifying for the end-of-season playoffs.
Dutiaume claimed he saw positives from the performance and will demand a 60-minute effort again from his squad – and he will hope highlyrated netminder Adam Morrison can maintain his outstanding form.
Tonight’s game at the Dundee Ice Arena faces off at 7pm.