Dundee Stars continued their push to make up the ground for a playoff spot with an overtime victory over Manchester Storm.
It was the Stars’ fifth point out of the last six on offer.
“I don’t think we played our best game, but it was 1-1 going into the last period and the team found a way in the third,” said Stars’ Spencer Naas. “Even though they scored with two minutes left we still had the belief, and that’s huge for us right now.
“Sometimes you have games that you need to step up a little bit more to give the team a chance. I was feeling good tonight, so it was nice to give the team a chance to win.”
Neither team could find the back of the net in a back-and-forth opening period, despite chances at both ends of the ice.
Manchester came close to opening the scoring early, with a shot that rang the post and prompted a referee-initiated video review which determined it narrowly avoided crossing the line.
Keanu Yamamoto broke the deadlock at just over the halfway mark, firing a shot from the right circle past Evan Weninger on the powerplay at 32:42.
Manchester equalised the score late in the second period through Loren Ulett, who lifted a rebound above Emil Kruse at 39:22 after the Stars’ netminder had made an initial pad save on Harrison Caines.
The Storm took their first lead late in the third period at 57:23, with Dennis Busby sending the puck past Kruse after a scramble broke out in front of the Stars’ net.
Ben Almquist responded almost immediately to level the score and send the game to overtime, redirecting a shot from Otto Nieminen past Weninger at 58:19.
Naas was the overtime hero for the Stars, cutting through the Storm defence and beating Weninger five-hole at 61:13.
Naas concluded: “Our performance was not great tonight, but we found a way in the third period and that’s really important. We have belief in the group that we can do this, and we can win against every team.”
Photo: Derek Black
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