Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Super Stars all set for Giants thriller
DUNDEE Stars battled back from 3-0 down to beat Sheffield Steelers 4-3 last night and 5-3 on aggregate to send themselves on to the Play-off Finals Weekend in Nottingham.
Stars travelled to Sheffield on Saturday night and snatched a late goal from Sebastian Bengtsson to give them a narrow advantage to take back to Dundee for the second leg.
Then last night at a packed Dundee Ice Arena, the English went ahead on a powerplay, which Marc-Olivier Vallerand would convert into the series-tying goal.
The visitors soon added a second goal of the night to put them ahead on aggregate score.
It was a well-worked moved by Sheffield that saw them keep possession, despite a lot of challenges from Dundee players and the puck eventually found Vallerand for a tap-in on 14 minutes.
The second period began with Sheffield adding to their lead, as Martin Latal made it 3-0 only 59 seconds after the restart.
Stars would not give up and eventually got the break they needed, as a roughing penalty against Sheffield’s David Phillips had Sheffield down to four skaters and a high-sticking double minor against John Armstrong then gave Dundee a five-on-three powerplay.
Dundee’s Kalvis Ozols then utilised his trademark slapshot to get the Tayside team on the board, as he blasted Sebastian Bengtsson’s pass home from just inside the blueline.
The second period ended with Sheffield still two goals ahead and one in front on aggregate but the Stars had given themselves a chance to turn it around.
Omar Pacha’s men were then shutdown during the rest of their over-lapping powerplay to begin the third period and it came all the way down to the final eight minutes.
That’s when Bengtsson scored the goal that put Dundee back on level terms, as he was left unmarked on the right wing, where Charlie Combs picked him out from across the ice and the Swede smacked home a rising shot into the top left corner.
Stars then got the perfect opportunity to get their noses in front on a powerplay.
After Aaron Fox decided to use his timeout, the Scots then knuckled down to make sure it would count and, with only 65 seconds left to play, Dundee got the go-ahead-goal.
They worked the puck around the zone, moving it behind the net, where Combs picked out Bengtsson again on the right flank and he beat Rok Stojanovic, with another bullet into the top right corner.
Sheffield then made the late gamble to pull Stojanovic in exchange for the extra attacker.
But that only allowed Dillon Lawrence to put Dundee two goals ahead and make it 4-3 on the night, as he lobbed the puck into an empty net from his own end of the ice.
The final buzzer finally kick-started the full celebrations for the Stars and their fans and other results across the country mean that Dundee will face Belfast Giants in the semi-finals of the Play-off Finals Weekend in Nottingham on Saturday.