Stars’ form sparkling as Devils are exorcised

Dundee Stars produced a clinical and dominant home performance against Cardiff Devils on Saturday night.

It’s been a frustrating season so far for Jeff Mason’s men, but they turned on the style in front of their own fans to stun the Welsh side in a 5-3 victory.

The Stars were only one player short of a full line-up as new signing Chris Lijdsman had to sit out as he awaits his international clearance while two-way players, Jonathan Mcbean and Ben Brown were both called up into the Dundee squad as well.

Devils had made the better start to the match as they were first to generate some offensive pressure but the Stars stayed strong. Mason’s powerplay unit took just 50 seconds to convert on the man advantage as Romans Semjonovs waited behind the Devils net before passing the puck out to the left side for Ben Sokay to try a narrow-angle shot and his quick finish beat Ben Bowns at his near post after 10 minutes.

Cardiff were then given a five-on-three powerplay as Dundee’s Colin Joe was called for a tripping foul and team-mate Craig Garrigan was also sinbinned for two minutes for his vocal disagreement with the referees’ call.

Ryan Pennie levelled for Devils just as the Stars duo returned to their positions.

Stars got back in front as defenseman Drydn Dow picked out Carter Folk with a long-range pass and that put the Canadian through on goal, where he fired a clean wrist shot straight into the top corner on 23 minutes.

Devils tied the game through Joshua Waller inside 28 minutes, when he smacked home the puck from point-blank range after it escaped off the stick of his team-mate Justin Crandall.

Dundee would regain the lead before the end of the middle session as a result of the Devils taking two roughing penalties nearly a minute apart and that gave the Stars their own five-onthree powerplay, where Elijiah Barriga would restore their one-goal advantage in the 37th minute.

But with 41 seconds of the final period gone Joey

Martin turned home Cardiff’s third equaliser of the night.

Barriga netted his second of the night in 45 minutes to put Stars 4-3 ahead and the same player sent the home fans into raptures when he completed his hattrick to make it 5-3.

The victory ended a seven-game losing streak for Stars, who visit Coventry Blaze on Thursday night.

• Zack Phillips claimed a double and assisted two other strikes last night as Fife Flyers beat Nottingham Panthers 6-1 at Kirkcaldy.

Phillips opened Fife’s account after 10 minutes after being set-up by Janne Kaakkonen and Reece Cochrane.

And the home crowd were on their feet again 11 minutes later when Chris

Lawrence popped in number two with Bari Mckenzie and Laakkonen setting up the chance.

The third arrived after 24 minutes when Janne Kivilahti latched on to a Mikael Johansson pass after he was fed by Phillips.

It got even better for home fans when Johansson netted the fourth goal less than three minutes from the second break.

Johansson added the fifth before Michael Caruso pulled one back for Panthers, only for Phillips to make it 6-1.

Flyers will meetdundee Stars in the quarter-final of the Viaplay Challenge Cup.

Belfast Giants face Nottingham Panthers, Sheffield Steelers go against Cardiff Devils and Coventry Blaze are drawn with Guildford Flames