Stars ready to perform Christmas miracle to end bad run of form

Dundee Stars aim to end their recent bad run of form tonight when they host big rivals Fife Flyers in a Boxing Day showdown at Dundee Ice Arena.

This is the first game of another double-header for Omar Pacha’s men as they travel to Kirkcaldy on Saturday.

This Christmas cracker is the fifth meeting between the two teams this season – and each side has yet to win at home with the four previous encounters having seen the visiting side leave with all the points.

Both Fife and Dundee were involved in a pair of games at the weekend but in their latest matches, each club came out on the wrong side of tight score lines.

Last Sunday Flyers were beaten 3-1 in Kirkcaldy by Belfast Giants while Stars lost 3-2 at home to Nottingham Panthers after pushing the English club right until the end before running out of time.

New Dundee signings Alex Schoenborn and Matt Carter impressed in their first two games and head coach Pacha hopes they can continue to show positive progression in the derby clash.

He said: “The reality is we need those guys to adjust as quickly as possible with the group here and so they have to have a big game on Boxing Day but I am pleasantly surprised with what I have seen so far.

“In the next few weeks they are going to play a lot of games, without much practice, so it won’t be easy for them but we need them to keep progressing every game.

“It was a really positive home debut for both and hopefully they can keep getting better.”

Looking ahead to today’s big rivalry match, the Stars boss added:

“We have a lot of catching up to do but it has to start against a big rival with a big crowd, so there is a lot riding on this game.

“It has to be a solid performance at home, a solid team game and we have to find a way to get offence against Fife because they have been alright recently, in the sense where they haven’t been conceding many goals.

“We also have to make sure we keep generating the chances we had against Nottingham last Sunday because we created a lot of chances but we just couldn’t find the back of the net.”

Stars – who prop up the Elite League with 15 points, nine behind eighth-placed Flyers – will be without defenseman Kris Inglis but were boosted by the return of Shawn Boutin to their line-up for last weekend’s fixtures, while Fife will be missing defender Sam Jones and forward Chase Schaber.

Face-off for tonight’s game is 5pm.