Stars ease to victory over Flyers

Photo: Derek Black

Dundee Stars climbed up to sixth in the standings with a 5-2 win over Scottish rivals Fife Flyers on Sunday night.

Brandan Harms scored a pair of goals on the night for the Stars. "I thought we had a really good start to the game, we’ve lost the last couple so this is a big one for us especially with Fife being a rival," he said. "I thought the team played pretty well, in the third period we kind of sat back a little bit but that’s just human nature when you’re up. Overall I'm really happy with the team’s performance."

Dundee controlled the opening period, scoring their first of the game at 08:44 on a 5-3 powerplay.  Alex Tonge utilised the open ice, sniping the puck above the shoulder of Janis Voris to give Stars a 1-0 lead in a crucial league fixture.

The Stars once again capitalised on the power play at 13:41, doubling the lead after the Flyers picked up their second Too-Many Men penalty of the period. This time it was Zach Tsekos skating the puck along the left wing, firing it towards the net where Brendan Harms was waiting to tip it across the line. 

Patience along the right wing by Jonathan McBean allowed him to find Brett Gravelle, who scored his second of the weekend at 15:37 after a wrist shot beat Voris glove side. 

Voris was pulled in the first intermission with Shane Owen taking up the Flyers' net for the rest of the game.

Fife came into the second period looking to get on the board early, and came close after generating their best scoring chances of the game. An early two-on-one opportunity where Ryan Foss missed an open net and a breakaway by Phelix Martineau tested Richard Sabol, however the Stars’ netminder stood tall and kept the visitors scoreless. 

A holding call on Jonathan McBean gave the Flyers their first power play of the game, yet despite this it was the Stars who got the next goal - Harms getting his second on the breakaway. The Canadian forced a turnover at the blue line, and after using his speed to get into the Fife zone slipped the puck past Shane Owen to give Dundee a 4-0 lead heading into the final period at 30:34.

"I’ve been hitting posts lately and they don’t seem to be going in, but thankfully tonight they did," said Harms. "The first one Tsekos made a really nice pass to me, I put my stick there and it went in. The second one I got pretty lucky on the blocked shot, and was able to get a shot off on the breakaway. They don’t always go in but when they do you’re always happy."

Michael Cichy did get Fife on the board 3:03 into the final period to give them a hope of getting back into the game, but the goal didn't seem to fire the visitors up as may have been expected.

Phelix Martineau made things interesting when he cut the arrears to just two with 9:10 left in the game, but 55 seconds later Philippe Sanche beat Owen short side to put the Stars back three ahead. That was where the scoring ended as the hosts managed out the final minutes without problems to take an important win.

"It’s huge, the standings are really tight right now so every game is big for us," said Harms of the final result. "Especially when you’re playing a rival team it’s even bigger so really happy to win that in front of the home fans."