Game Preview - Devils Vs Stars

15th Feb 2013 | Posted by Simon Rafferty

Sunday night is hockey night in the bay this week as the Devils play hosts to the 8th placed Dundee Stars, this will be the fourth meeting between the two clubs this season with the series currently running in the favor of the Devils 3- 1.

A quick web search reveals some riveting information on Dundee and Stars as follows -

Dundee officially the City of Dundee, is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 38th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea. Under the name of Dundee City, it forms one of the 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland.

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A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity, a star shines due to thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium in its core, releasing energy that traverses the star's interior and then radiates into outer space.

Unfortunately finding anything much on the Dundee Stars hockey club is more of tricky proposition. We took a look at the Stars Squad earlier in the year which you can check out here http://www.the-inferno.co.uk/news/devils-vs-stars-251012/.  Since then they have added Janis Ozlins and have recently parted company with Forward Tim Kraus
Stars coach Jeff Hutchins said  -

"Tim's a great guy in the room and I can't fault his professionalism. Unfortunately it hasn't worked out for him on the ice and I've had to let him go. I wish Tim every success in the future."

Looking at their last few games the Stars have had some mixed form of late Sunday saw them take on the Hull Stingrays in an “incredible goal fest” or “shocking defensive shambles” at Dundee Ice Arena where they shared fourteen goals in regulation before the game was decided 18 seconds from the end of overtime.

It was Stingrays who opened the scoring in this one at 11.07 with a strike by Jason Silverthorn but Stars had a real purple patch after that, scoring three times to lead 3-1 by the period break. The counters came from Sami Ryhanen at 14.38 (PP), Janis Ozolins at 17.10 and Baxter at 17.39.

The second period looked to be heading goalless until another scoring spree saw five goals in the last five minutes. Stingrays actually took the lead with three in 143 seconds, with Martin Ondrej at 35.10 (PP), Sylvain Cloutier at 36.56 (PP) and Silverthorn at 37.33 (SH) seeing the visitors lead 4-3 before Stars came back and scored two of their own on the powerplay with Bill Bagron at 38.47 and Mike Wirll 19 seconds later edging his side 5-4 ahead.

It wasn’t even goal action in the middle period as an incident at 33.35 saw Tristan Harper of Stars ejected on a match penalty for fighting, with Stingrays Shane Lovdahl also leaving the game on a 5 plus game for roughing.

If anyone thought period three would be a little calmer then they had to think again. Tom Squires drew Stingrays level again at 45.44 only for Pat Bowen at 48.34 and Ozolins 15 seconds later to fire Stars 7-5 ahead. Still Stingrays were not finished and Dominic Osman pulled them to within one at 49.27 and then remarkably it was 7-7 when on the powerplay Kurtis Dulle hit the net at 50.52 (PP).

The biggest surprise was that the game went the remaining nine minutes without further scoring but right at the end of overtime it was Baxter who set the home fans alight by scoring the game winner at 64.42.

Final score Dundee Stars 8- 7 Hull Stingrays (After Overtime)

The Stars were again in action on Tuesday night taking on local rivals the Fife Flyers.  It was the Stars who got the go ahead goal with the only strike in the first period as Player/Coach Jeff Hutchins fired in on the powerplay at 11.14.

The Flyers got back on level terms with a powerplay goal from Bobby Chaumont at 23.14. However the Stars regained the lead with a strike from Bill Bagron at 27.59. The Flyers were back on level terms with another powerplay goal this time from Kris Hogg at 29.58. They then took the lead for the first time with a third powerplay goal coming from the stick of Zac Carriveau  at 33.02. This was a lead they held onto till the end of the second period.

The Stars could have regained the lead by the 48th minute as at 42.15 Mike Wirll with a shorthanded goal restored equality, however at 47.02 he missed a penalty shot. A few moments later Stars Player/Coach Jeff Hutchins (5 plus game for spearing) and Jason Pitton of the Flyers (5 plus game for slashing) were both ejected from the game.

A second shorthanded goal of the game this time from Casey Haines at 53.37 put the hosts back in front. With goaltender Riopel pulled for the extra man Bobby Chaumont found the empty net at 59.58 to complete the scoring.

Final Score - Fife Flyers 5- 3 Dundee Stars

Looking at the Stars scoring the ones to watch are Sami Ryhanen on 22 goals for the season 2 of which he scored on the Devils nets, Mike Wirll on 26 Goals one of which he scored on us and Billy Bagron on 15 goals 2 of which he’s netted against Cardiff.

In nets the Stars are backed up by Nic Riopel who’s save percentage sits at a respectable 91.5% luckily the Devils seem to have his number thought with Chris Blight having scored against his net 4 times and Stuart MacRae having netted another 2 against the Stars. 

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 you can chip in with some comments on the night by contacting us at matchnightlive@gmail.com