ROUND-UP Effort is not enough

Valiant display but Stars fail to make the cup semi-finals

DESPITE a valiant effort, a short-benched Dundee CCS Stars lost their second leg Challenge Cup quarter-final match in Cardiff last night by 4-2, 8-3 on aggregate.

The Taysiders travelled south with a 4-1 deficit from the first leg in Dundee and were without Craig Cescon, Joey Sides and Cale Tanaka.

Stars fell behind on the night after only four minutes when Chris Culligan opened the scoring for Devils. Two minutes later, Cardiff were on the powerplay when Justin Faryna was awarded two minutes for tripping.

They almost made the extra man count when Jake Morissette produced an outstanding save from Joe Fallon.

Almost immediately, Dundee were level when Vinny Scarcella broke free to score a short-handed goal to tie the game on the night.

The visitors were playing well and had chances to take the lead but the period ended with the teams locked together at 1-1.

Kevin Hart picked up a two minute minor for hooking with just over a minute left in the opening session that meant that Cardiff would start the second stanza on a 49 second powerplay.

In 22 minutes, Dundee took the lead on the night with a goal from Scott Brannon that took them to within two of their hosts on aggregate.

In 30 minutes, Cardiff tied the game with a strike from Joey Haddad that opened up a 6-3 aggregate scoreline. Back came Dundee and a great backhanded effort from Lidhammar flew just over the top of the cage.

With 90 seconds left in the second period, Faryna took a two minute penalty for tripping and, on the resultant powerplay, Sean Bentivoglia netted to put Devils 3-2 up in 39 minutes.

Five minutes into the final period, Devils increased their lead to 4-2 when Layne Ulmer fired a shot home.

Stars didn’t register one powerplay and that was something that coach Marc LeFebvre picked up on. The coach showed concerns that the standard of officiating in the league has dropped and feels that something needs to be done.

He said: “The officiating was diabolical. The guy refereeing the game is based in this rink and he should never be allowed to referee a game in Cardiff. We didn’t get one powerplay and I find that staggering. The standard of refereeing is getting worse. Something needs to be done.”