Devils @ Stars - Game Preview

15th Nov 2012 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

Saturday see’s the Devils make the long trip to Dundee to face the Stars the at home. This will be the second meeting between the two teams meet this season with the 6th placed overall but first in their conference Stars no doubt being keen to better the last meetings result against the Devils and improve on last season’s overall result which saw them take just 1 win from the team’s six meetings. 

We took a look at the Stars Squad prior to the last game which you can check out here http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/news/devils-vs-stars-251012/  and you can check out the review of this game here   http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/news/review-devils-vs-stars/ 

The Stars have bolstered their squad since this last meeting with the addition of  TIM Kraus, their  new American forward who previously played for the Victoria Salmon Kings,  the Drayton Gems, the Wichita Thunder and the  Las Vegas Wranglers scored a goal and an assist in helping Dundee win twice in his first two appearances. Kraus has a good level of experience at the ECHL level but with just five goals in the last 2 years he’s not a proven scoring threat.

Looking at the Stars squad the main threats remain Sami Ryhanen who leads the league for scoring on 11 Goals and 24 assists in 19 Games and Mike Wirll on 10 goals and 21 assists with secondary scoring coming from Billy Bagron 5 Goals 11 assists, Pat Bowen 5 Goals and 8 assists and Matt Baxter on 5 goals and 5 assists.

In nets the Stars are backstopped by Nic Riopel who has a 93.5% save percentage with a goal against average of 2.55

Last weekend saw the Stars in action twice first off against Fife away on Saturday  where after three straight losses on the road the Stars came from behind to win. After being behind from a first period strike from the Flyers, Mike Wirll hit a double in the third period, with the game winner coming with 56 seconds remaining. 

The hosts took the honours in the first period with the only goal coming at 10.56 as Casey Haines netted on the power play. 

After a goalless second period the game was still hanging by a thread as the Flyers lead by that first period goal. 

It was game on at 46.17 as Mike Wirll got the Stars back on level terms with power play goal. At the same time the Flyers lost the services of Jeff Caister as he was ejected from the game. With the game heading for overtime Mike Wirll netted the game winner at 59.04. 

Fife Flyers 1- 2 Dundee Stars  

Sunday saw the Starts take on another local rival the Edinburgh Capitals the game started poorly for the Stars with  Neil Hay firing the Capitals ahead at 13.33.
 

The second period saw Capitals double their lead when Rene Jarolin shot and scored at 21.06 but the home side hit back at 32.14 with a counter by Pat Bowen.
 

What a third period we had with firstly Marcis Zembergs giving the visitors a 3-1 lead when scoring at 48.09 only for Stars player/coach Jeff Hutchins to pull one back only 26 seconds later. Amid mounting excitement Stars then tied it up with a power play effort by Matt Baxter at 51.48 but at 52.52 the Edinburgh side were back in front after Peter Holecko found the net.
 

The goals kept coming and at 53.42 it was 4-4 thanks to a Stars goal by Sami Ryhanen leaving a tense last few minutes where it was Kraus who became an instant home hero by firing in the game winner with 53 seconds remaining and again just after Capitals had killed off a minor penalty on Frazer Goldie. 

Dundee Stars 5- 4 Edinburgh Capitals 

The Devils see the welcome return of Phil Hill who returns from Japan where he played in team GB’s victorious campaign, the Devils will still be without forward Max Birbraer but could see the return from injury of  defenseman Tyson Marsh ( according to the Western mail). 

We will be running the “ridiculously childish and disgustingly biased” Match Night Live service for this game, expect name calling and one eyed bias in epic proportions, at the usual location of http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/mnl if you'd like to help out by texting updates (we’d be happy to hear from you) or chip in with some comments on the night please contact us at matchnightlive@gmail.com.

For details of upcoming away travel with Red Army Travel and you can get all the information here http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6639