Stars coach pleased to see his side looking dangerous

ICE HOCKEY: Fife netminder praised for his ‘one-man performance’

Head coach Omar Pacha hailed his ‘dangerous’ Dundee Stars after a productive weekend.

The Canadian saw his side held at home by Glasgow Clan in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals first leg before hammering Coventry Blaze 7-3 in a league clash 24 hours later.

Stars sit ninth in the table but only nine points separate them from league leaders Sheffield Steelers.

Pacha said: “That result against Coventry was a huge win in the league for us and I am pleased with how we clicked offensively. Going forward, we looked dangerous all night and that was an aspect of the game I wanted to see, so I am really happy for the guys.

“We had good goaltending and hopefully that keeps going and obviously we had great offence but defensively we still have to be better.”

Dundee have not lost in their last five games and have now won four league matches on the bounce.

“Hopefully that win continues to build momentum and the guys will get a few days off now and it is well deserved because they have battled hard over the last few weeks”, added Pacha.

The Stars boss does believe that his side should have beaten Clan on Friday – and if it was a normal match that would have required extra-time to find a winner he was adamant that the Stars would have came out on top.

He said: “I think those last five games were all games that we should have won and that match against Glasgow, if it had gone to overtime, I was the most confident person ever.

“I just thought it was good to get that game tied then we had plenty of chances, I actually thought we were better on Friday against Glasgow but it was good to see our offence click like that on Saturday.”

The weekend’s results have once again proven how closely competitive the league is this year as Dundee prevailed 7-3 over the Blaze who sit in fifth position.

However, just a few weeks back when the Clan were leading the league, Coventry humiliated them with a 9-2 victory.

This weekend Stars head south to Manchester on Saturday as they aim to continue opening a gap between them and the Storm, who sit at the foot of the table. The following day Dundee welcome reigning Elite League champions Belfast Giants to Tayside.

Meanwhile, frustrated Paul Dixon praised Fife Flyers’ highly-rated netminder Adam Morrison yesterday.

Guildford Flames’ Sunderland-born coach said his men could not have done more after the English side crashed 2-0 on home ice against Todd Dutiaume’s outfit.

The 46-year-old claimed it was “pretty much a one-man performance” from the Kirkcaldy club as Morrison defied his men time and again in front of a near 2,000-crowd at The Spectrum.

Former defenceman Dixon said: “I don’t think we could have done anything different and I felt we controlled the game from start to finish. We couldn’t score.

“It was just one of those games where the goalie saw everything and we tried but, credit to him, he was outstanding.”

Fife, who are sixth in the table, bounced back to claim the win with goals from Paul and his brother Tim Crowder after losing 4-3 in a shoot-out to Manchester Storm at Kirkcaldy on Saturday.

Dutiaume said: “The teams match up pretty well and we came under some early pressure after that long bus trip but I felt we played a mature game right to the end.

“I thought our goalie was exceptional and was key to us getting three points.”

Picture: Kris Miller. Stars coach Omar Pacha is looking for his side to extend their winning streak to six games.