Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Stars suffer in fiery clash with Blaze
DUNDEE Stars were missing four players for their final match against Coventry Blaze in the regular Elite Ice Hockey League season as goaltender Kevin Carr, defenceman Xavier Pouliot and forwards Tommy Parrottino and Craig Garrigan all missed out last night through injury or sickness.
However, despite this, Stars created the better chances throughout the opening 20 minutes.
Lucas Brine in goal also had to be in good form to keep Blaze off the scoreboard and both keepers did their jobs well as the game remained at 0-0 heading to the second period.
The home team had nearly taken the lead inside the final minute of the first while on the powerplay, but Carter Johnson’s “goal” was ruled out after it was determined he kicked the puck across the line.
In the second session, Blaze quickly capitalised on early pressure and converted it for a lead in the 22nd minute as Alessio Luciani beat Brine with a wrist shot from the left circle.
That was not enough to knock Stars off their game though as they continued to fire shots on the Coventry goal. They found the breakthrough after Dundonian forward Jonathan McBean caught James Phelan’s pass in his skates and played it to Johnson on the right. The Canadian centre rifled a shot straight into Taran Kozun’s net to level the score on 30 minutes.
In a hard-hitting battle tensions came to boiling point as Dundee’s Ryan Valentini was hit behind the play and after no call came for the foul his protests landed him a two-minute penalty for misconduct.
Dundee did not just lose Valentini as defender Elijah Vilio was also called for slashing on the play and that put Marc LeFebvre’s men down to three skaters for a full two minutes.
Blaze only needed 20 seconds to convert on the powerplay.
Brine saved the first effort on his net but the rebound popped out to the right and on to the stick of the waiting Kobe Roth and he tapped home to put Danny Stewart’s men back in front after 37 minutes.
Some scuffles continued throughout the rest of the middle of the period and into the third session with more big hits dished out. The hardest was by Stars’ Chris McKay as his thunderous collision with Ian McNulty into the boards earned him a five-minute major penalty and some stitches for McNulty.
Blaze were unable to convert on their advantage but Kim Tallberg did manage to bat in a third goal after Brine made the initial stop and that extended Coventry’s lead to 3-1 after 53 minutes.
With less than three minutes to play, LeFebvre called a timeout and pulled Brine for the extra attacker but that allowed Blaze to finish off the match as Roth netted his second of the night into the empty net for a 4-1 road win.
Stars lost their only chance to claim some points at the weekend but are still holding the eighth and final play-off spot, with a visit from Nottingham Panthers up next on Friday (7.30pm).