Stars need to beware teams below closing in on them

DUNDEE Stars take on two play-off rivals this weekend as they faceoff in must-win matches against Coventry Blaze tonight and Glasgow Clan tomorrow.

Stars visit Coventry with a win and loss already under their belt in the SkyDome Arena this season, after winning 5-3 on their first trip, but losing 4-2 on their most recent outing.

In their last meeting with Blaze, Stars suffered a 2-1 overtime defeat at home as Brent Beaudoin’s second-period opener was cancelled out by Kobe Roth in the third period before Johnny Curran netted the winner for Danny Stewart’s side in extra time.

Currently, four points separate Dundee and Coventry, with the West Midlands club in fifth and Stars chasing them in sixth.

However, the teams below have all moved in closer and now only five points separate Stars from Nottingham Panthers in 10th.

Stars captain Drydn Dow, pictured, and Spencer Naas led the team in scoring against Coventry with a goal and three assists each, while Ian McNulty has bagged six assists and one goal against Dundee.

Tomorrow, meanwhile, Marc LeFebvre’s men host Scottish rivals Glasgow Clan in their sixth clash of the campaign and, so far, Dundee have won three of the past five.

With two wins and one shootout defeat on home ice, this will be Glasgow’s last visit to Dundee in the regular season. The last match between the pair ended in a 4-3 overtime win for the Stars.

Both Naas and Ryan Valentini hit braces to power Dundee to victory after Matt Barry, Darien Craighead and Cody Sol scored for Clan.

Valentini leads his team’s attack against Glasgow with five goals and five assists in five games, while Clan’s Gary Haden has eight points against Stars this year.

The Dundee side have been boosted by the arrival of Canadian defenceman Xavier Pouliot to bolster their options ahead of this weekend.

He flew into Tayside earlier this week and could make his debut tonight in Coventry.

Looking ahead to the weekend’s games, Stars head coach LeFebvre said: “Coventry are a team we want to catch in the standings.

“We want to end this run of form we have been on over the last few weeks, and get back into the win column.

“With 15 games to go, we have to maximise our points and make sure we get ourselves in the top eight, we know that and that is the task at hand.

“This run of form we’ve had lately, it is not from lack of effort, we are just finding ways to lose those games and there is five or six of those seven games that we have been in.

“They have been tight and could have gone either way, so we just have to find a way to flip those over and get the victories.”

He continued: “This weekend, we need to play play-off style hockey and, no matter if it is a positive thing or a negative thing that happens to us, we just have to keep on moving forward and take it shift by shift.”

The Canadian coach also shared a few words on his new addition Pouliot, after his first few days with the team.

“His first couple of practices have been good, he moves well and moves the puck well,” said LeFebvre.

“So, it really is going to provide that internal competition within our line-up for who is coming in and going out for every game.”

Face-off for tonight’s game in Coventry is at 7pm while tomorrow’s home game against Glasgow begins at 5pm.