Dundee Stars picked up their first regulation win since early January with an impressive win over title chasing Nottingham Panthers at the Motorpoint Arena.
“It was a great team win. Everyone was all in, people were sacrificing their bodies with great blocks, Emil was great in net and we scored some nice goals,” said Otto Nieminen, who left the Panthers in the summer to join the Stars. “It was one of our best games for a while.”
The only goal of the opening period came somewhat against the run of play, but was nonetheless very well taken. With just one of their four shots in the period, Dundee broke forward and saw Ben Almquist feed Keanu Yamamoto, who beat Kevin Carr with a shot the goaltender got a piece of at 7:33.
The Panthers had most of the pressure heading into the break, but were perhaps guilty of one pass too many.
“This season we’ve often conceded the first goal, or even the first two, so it was really important for us to go ahead,” explained Nieminen. “As we did on Friday, we got the first goal and that gave us some confidence. We’ve played two games where we were leading this week, and that was big.”
Nottingham levelled just over halfway through the game. Emil Kruse made an excellent save, but the puck stayed in the Stars zone and eventually fell to David Noel, who fired home from the slot. However, a big rebound off a Jackson DeSouza shot fell straight to Jonathan McBean, who shot into the net to re establish the Stars lead just 56 seconds later.
It got better for the visitors at 33:35 when another DeSouza shot, this time on the power play, came back off the backboards to Yamamoto, who slotted home from close range. Danny Stewart called his timeout to steady his Panthers players after the goal, but his side trailed by two after 40 minutes.
Noel brought the Panthers back to within one at 56:04, scoring on the power play after the Stars had killed four minutes on Morten Jurgens before DeSouza took a tripping minor. The goal was scored with Carr pulled, and while he remained out of the net on the next play the Stars broke on the rush and saw Otto Nieminen put the puck perfectly on a plate for Drydn Dow to score a fourth for the Stars at 57:19. Just 26 seconds later, Tim Doherty tipped Noel’s shot past Kruse to make it a one goal game again.
The Panthers could not, however, force a tying goal and the Stars held on for an excellent road win.
“We have to take this confidence into our next games and move forward. We haven’t been consistent enough so far, and this has to be the standard,” concluded Nieminen.
Photo: Derek Black
