Devils Vs Stars 25/10/12

23rd Oct 2012 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

Thursday night see’s the Dundee Stars make the long trip to Cardiff to face the Devils at home. This will be the first time the two teams meet this year with the 7th placed Stars no doubt being keen to better last season’s results against the Devils which saw them take just 1 win from the team’s six meetings.

Last season the stars seemed to struggle to find the back of the net but it seems they may well have found a few guys who can rack up a few more points. The addition of Billy Bagron from the Ontario Reign in the ECHL who’s put up 4 goals and 5 assists so far this season, Sami Ryhanen who split last year between Denmark and the Nottingham Panthers and has registered 7 goals and 15 assists already this term and Mike Wirll from the last seasons Braehead Clan also on 7 goals and 15 assists all add to Dundee’s firepower.

Alongside them returning for his third season with the Stars is captain A J Maclean, who is joined by newly appointed player coach Jeff Hutchins the Stars top scorer from last season.

The Stars British forwards pack see’s the addition of returning players Tristan Harper, who returns spent a season in Hull, Vince Connon back from Braehead Clan, and new arrival Jack Watkins from the Hull Stingrays. The Stars Brit forward pack is rounded out by Dean Holland returning for his second season with the Stars and local Ross McIntosh who had a solid rookie campaign last season.

On Defence the Stars picked up Pat Bowen from the ECHL’s Ontario Reign, Matt Baxter from the CHL’s Dayton Gems , Doug Krantz from the Bloomington Blaze in the CHL and Greg Moore from the CHL’s Laredo Bucks.  Also on D the Stars have home grown  Daniel Topping,  Jonathan Hogan, Shaun Smith and Sam McCluskey who seem to be splitting Ice time between themselves.

In nets the Stars have Nic Riopel, recruited from the Greenville Road Warriors in the ECHL who played as recently as 2010/11 in the AHL  with a save percentage of 93.8%. So far in the EIHL  it appears that Riopel will be a tough one to beat. Backing him up Mark McGill returns for a third pro season with Stars.

Last weekend saw the Stars in Action twice. First up on Saturday against the Hull Stingrays away where they had the dubious honor of giving the Stingrays their first win in 8 games.

The Stars opened the scoring early in the first as Billy Bagron found the back of the net. The hosts got back on level term with a strike from Jeff Smith. The Stingrays then edged into the lead with two minutes left in the period as Jason Silverthorn scored to give them a one goal lead at the end of the period.

Dundee had a great chance to get back into the game when they were awarded a penalty shot early in the first but Mike Wirll missed the opportunity. This was a big miss for the visitors as the Stingrays increased their lead with a power play goal from Janis Ozolins at 24.20.

Ozolins got his second of the game early in the third period at 42.21 to give the host a 4-1 lead. However, a second goal from Bagron at 44.54 and then a strike from Pat Bowen at 48.30 got the visitors back to within one. That was as close as they would get as the Stingrays held onto take the points.

Hull Stingrays 4 – 3 Dundee Stars 3

Sunday night saw the Stars take on conference rivals the Fife Flyers in the Challenge cup. The Stars took an early lead with a goal in the second minute from Bill Bagron on a 5 on 3 power play opportunity but playing as big a part in the win was goaltender Nic Riopel, as he saved all 39 shots fired at him by the Flyers offence.

Making this the sixth straight home wins for Stars, with Dundee Ice Arena becoming a bit of a fortress but for Flyers it’s now three road losses in a row as their own fine home form has yet to follow them on their travels.

Dundee Stars 1- 0 Fife Flyers

Looking at the Stars team they do seem to be a better team up front and in Goal on paper than last year, their defence to my mind looks a little weak, if they can build on their great form at home and start to get some road wins they could do well in their conference but I feel they will struggle against the Arena teams and the likes of the Devils and the Blaze.

Last weekend saw the Devils face the Steelers away on Friday in the Cup and the Panthers at home on Sunday in the league if you missed these games you can check out details of these two games over at http://theworldofsportbyateengirl.blogspot.co.uk/

If you can't make the game on Thursday, shame on you (unless it’s like really far or you just don’t really fancy it) but fear not as you can still keep up as we'll be running the "Ridiculously childish" and "disgustingly biased" Match Night Live service for this game, at the usual location of http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/mnl

If you'd like to help out with texting updates we’d be happy to hear from you or if you'd like to chip in with some comments on the night please contact us at matchnightlive@gmail.com