Stars survive late scare to beat Devils

Photo: Derek Black

Dundee Stars struck again as Cardiff's bogey team with a 3-2 victory at the Dundee Ice arena on Wednesday night in a game they were leading comfortably until the final two minutes.

Adam Morrison stood on his head in the opening period to keep the Devils out through the opening 20 minutes. At the other end, his team mates played their part with the game's opening at 15:33 - an excellent pass from Timi Lahtinen picked out Sebastian Bengtsson in the slot, and he calmly slotted past Mac Carruth to put the stars ahead,

Dundee started period two on top and after some decent pressure were rewarded with their second of the game - Spencer Dorowicz shot off the back boards and Charlie Combs was on hand at the other side of the net to knock the puck into the open cage. 

The Devils were unable to find a way back into the game on a Quinn O'Brien penalty with 5:30 to go in the period, going 0 for 3 on the man advantage through 40 minutes.

Bengtsson went through 1-on-0 with Carruth and pulled off a nice five-hole finish to put the Stars three ahead 3:46 into the final period to give the home side a comfortable lead. 

While the Devils did push for a way back into the game, the Starts looked comfortable for 15 minutes until the visitors upped the pressure with Carruth pulled for the extra skate with over four minutes to go. Brodie Reid jammed the puck home from close range to get the Devils on the board at 56:07, and then set up a grandstand finish when he fired past Morrison from a tight angle on the overload with 1:22 left to play.

Carruth was out of the net as soon as the Devils won the next faceoff as they pushed for the equaliser, but good bodies in shooting lanes from the Stars kept the puck out of harm's way. Markus Kankaanpera was given a cross-checking penalty with five seconds left, but the Stars won the resulting draw and kept the puck until the final buzzer sounded.