Pacha urges Stars to earn place in history

Dundee Stars boss Omar Pacha has called on his players to seal their place in the history books and become club legends by getting their hands on the Elite Ice Hockey League play-offs trophy this weekend.

The Stars have made it all the way to the semifinals of the play-offs and come up against Belfast Giants in Nottingham tomorrow afternoon.

A victory against the tournament favourites would then see Dundee fight for silverware and a place in the European Continental Cup in the Grand Final on Sunday, where they would play either Cardiff Devils or Guildford Flames.

The Stars made it to the Final Four Weekend after stunning second seeds Sheffield Steelers last weekend with a 5-3 aggregate victory after being 3-0 down on home ice.

After leading 1-0 from the first leg in Sheffield through Sebastian Bengtsson’s lone strike, the Steelers quickly fired three goals past Dundee on Sunday in the second leg, but a late revival saw the Stars knock out the Elite League runners-up.

Kalvis Ozols found the net on the powerplay to get Dundee off the mark, before a Bengtsson brace put them ahead in the dying minutes of the game and they then wrapped up the series with an emptynet goal from Dillon Lawrence.

Their opponents for tomorrow’s semi-final scraped past eighth seeds Coventry Blaze. They were locked in a 4-4 draw after 125 minutes with the tie eventually settled deep into penalty shots.

Pacha said: “We are going to have to skate hard against them.

“They are a good skating team and they have depth everywhere across their line-up and for us it is about staying disciplined and make sure we play hard against their top players such as the Goodwin-Piccinich and Conway top line.

“But overall, it will come down to our ability to skate, we are one of the fastest teams in the league, if we can do that then I think we will put ourselves in a good position.”

The league champions have been hard to score against all season long but the Canadian coach believes Stars must focus on turning defence into attack.

Pacha said: “It is all about playing well defensively – you might get more chances from getting the puck back in your own end and we need the puck on Saturday.

“That was a big thing and when we had that we created chances obviously and we were always pretty solid in those games.

“We are going to need everybody to step up, whether it be goaltenders, defenders or forwards, everybody is going to have to have their best game, if we want to get a result.”

Pacha, who has been in charge of the Stars since 2017, labelled this as a huge moment for the club and the city as his team bids to reach their first ever final in the Elite League era.

He said: “It would be massive, the Stars have never been to the final, so that is another incentive for the group.

“They can make history and become club legends.”

Meanwhile, Belfast netminder Tyler Beskorowany insists they won’t be thrown off by their bogey team.

Dundee have twice beaten the Giants this season, with only Cardiff Devils and Sheffield

Steelers also managing the feat.

Beskorowany said that the Grand Slam-chasing team were hoping to avoid the Stars in the play-offs.

He said: “They were probably the one team I didn’t want to face this weekend.

“They’ve got a good team, they’ve got a goalie who can steal games and we know they’re going to come in with a lot of energy after beating Sheffield but I’m really looking forward to the challenge.”

Beskorowany insists his side want to rectify what happened in 2019 when Belfast lost the Finals Weekend against Cardiff, having already won the Elite League and Challenge Cup.

He said: “We’re going to come out and prepare like we did last time and use that experience for next weekend and set up a oneoff game for the title. It’s a do-or-die for us now.”