Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Stars enjoy a four-point weekend
DUNDEE Stars made it a four-point weekend as they scored well against their Scottish rivals Glasgow Clan in a 7-3 win at the Dundee Ice Arena and took a 2-1 victory over the Blaze in Coventry.
The Stars had Xavier Pouliot in the line-up but missed first line forward Brendan Harms as he served his suspension and they were without Brent Beaudoin, however goaltender Kevin Carr returned.
It took 67 seconds for Dundee to score as Spencer Naas skated on to Ryan Valentini’s drop pass, which had pulled Coventry keeper Taran Kozun out of position and left the American with an easy finish for his 25th league goal of the season.
Marc LeFebvre’s penalty killing unit successfully saw out both penalties to protect their slim lead and by the end of the middle stanza, the score was unchanged.
The home team found an equaliser six minutes into the third period after a miscue behind the Stars net saw Carr play to what he thought was safety, but was actually the stick of Danny Kristo and he fired home.
Then with both teams down to four skates, Valentini used the extra space to restore the Stars’ lead as he slung his shot past Kozun to put Dundee back in front on 51 minutes.
It came down to the final minutes when the home team went on another powerplay and with 23 seconds left on the clock, the Blaze thought Kim Tallberg’s effort had squeaked across the line after the referees signalled for a goal.
However, after a video review, it was ruled the puck did not cross the goal line and Drydn Dow’s gamesaving goal line clearance prevented overtime.
Yesterday, Dundee got off to a flying start against Glasgow as they broke the deadlock just 90 seconds in after James Phelan was unmarked in front of the Glasgow net and took Anthony Rinaldi’s pass, pulled the puck left and past Kevin Lindskoug.
Glasgow could have been buried but in the 11th minute, the home side broke through again, as Jake Elmer picked out the top corner of the Clan goal from the right wing on the powerplay.
A minute later, Spencer Naas got on the scoresheet with a tap-in after Elijah Vilio’s saved shot dropped right in front of him.
With Dundee 3-0 up inside 12 minutes, Clan head coach Jason Morgan replaced
Lindskoug with Antti Karjalainen for the rest of the match but he could not stop Naas from netting his second of the night.
In the 17th minute, the Stars gained an extra attacker during a delayed penalty, Drydn Dow dropped a pass back to Naas and he had an easy finish to make it 4-0, but the Clan hit back from the restart as Michael Pelech poked one past Kevin Carr in the Dundee net.
The second session was quieter as the only goal came in the final minute of the middle period as Ryan Valentini sniped a second powerplay goal, extending their advantage to 5-1.
In the third period, the Braehead outfit pulled two goals back as ex-Star, Philippe Sanche fired home their second on 42 minutes and Gary Haden capitalised three minutes later.
Carter Johnson pushed Dundee closer to victory as he bagged the sixth inside 55 minutes and two minutes after that, Anthony Rinaldi deflected Josh Brittain’s pass into the Glasgow goal, to round off the score at 7-3.
The Stars take two points to put them three clear of Glasgow and make it a threeway contest for fifth as they sit level with Manchester Storm and Blaze on 42.
Next up,a mid-week trip to Belfast Giants can see Dundee climb into the top half of the Elite League.