Stars take huge win in race for playoffs

Photo: Mark Ferris

Dundee Stars took a huge step to securing a playoff place with a 5-2 win in Manchester, pulling themselves up to seven points clear of the Storm.

With a lot on the line in this game, the opening period very much had the feel of a playoff game. Storm had the better of the early chances but it was Dundee who led after 20 minutes - Brendan Harms winning a battle at the net and putting the puck home off a Zach Tsekos pass at 14:42 on the powerplay.

Manchester pinned Dundee int their zone for large spells at the start of period two, but without levelling the scores. Jarrett Fiske made two excellent low pad saves to keep his team ahead, and then the Stars hit the other way - Phillippe Sanche scoring at 30:58 to make it 2-0.

Ryan Hughes got Manchester back into the game at 33:14 while Spencer Naas was sitting a hooking penalty, but just over three minutes later Kameron Kielly beat David Tendeck blocker side to put the Stars back up by two.

Storm had the better of the chances in period three as well, but just couldn’t get shots on target – or beat Fiske when they did. Running out of time, Mike Morin pulled Tendeck with just over four minutes to play - but it backfired with Brendan Harms netting with 2:48 to play to make it 5-1. Dallas Ehrhadt did get one more on the board for Storm with 2:16 to go, but when Tendeck was pulled again Spencer Naas slotted into the empty net with one second to play to wrap up a huge road win for the Stars.

The teams meet again in Dundee on Sunday in a game Storm now cannot afford to lose.