Dundee Stars backed up their win in Belfast on Opening Weekend with a 5-2 home victory over the Giants on Sunday night.
“I think we played good,” began Stars’ Matt Berry. “From the start we played hard, got to a lead and stuck with it for a full sixty so I think we’re happy with our effort.”
“I thought Dundee played well, they made us work for every inch out there and ultimately we need to perform better,’ summarised Giants captain David Goodwin. “That’s twice they’ve taken it to us, we have higher standards than that so a little unfortunate but back to work this upcoming week.”
Craig Garrigan opened the scoring and got Dundee on the board early with his first of the calendar year at 02:53. Drydn Dow sent a pass from below the goal line, finding Garrigan alone in front of the Giants net who backhanded the puck past Alexis Gravel to make it 1-0.
It didn’t take long for Belfast to equalise, as Reid Irwin sent a shot from the faceoff circle that deflected off of a Dundee stick and past Jarrett Fiske at 05:08.
A shot from the point by Jackson DeSouza was initially blocked by a Belfast defender, however the puck fell kindly for Ben Almquist, who fired it into the net and regained the Stars’ lead at 11:26.
Dundee once again struck early, this time through Spencer Naas who took advantage of a delay-of-game penalty against the Giants and fired the puck past the pads of Gravel at 20:32. This prompted both a time-out and a goaltender change for the visitors.
A roughing penalty against Karl Boudrias gave the Stars their second powerplay opportunity of the period, which Hampus Olsson converted on at 25:24 after collecting a rebound in close and slotting it home to make it 4-1.
Nicolas Guay cut the deficit in half almost immediately at 25:58, carrying the puck into the Stars’ zone and firing a wrist shot from the high slot through traffic to beat Jarrett Fiske.
Matt Berry took advantage of extended pressure in the Giants zone, picking the puck up behind the net and sliding it past the pads of a sprawling Jackson Whistle to make it 5-2 at 48:34.
““It was nice to get on the board tonight, I was a little cold the last two games but I’ve got to credit the team and my linemates who worked really hard out there and found me a couple times,” added Berry. “We’ve had a hard time keeping leads a couple of times this season. We get one and seem to let teams come back so tonight was nice getting the two goal lead going into the third and being able to keep it. It was huge for our group to see how to play with a lead and keep the lead, so going forward hopefully we get doing that.”
The Giants maintained consistent pressure for the remainder of the period, looking to once again equalise. Despite this, Jarrett Fiske turned away all shots sent his way and secured the two points for the Stars with a 5-2 victory.
“I think Dundee simply play harder than us,” concluded Goodwin after two defeats to the Stars. “They win more battles than us, they compete a little bit harder. There’s a lot of parity in this league right now, it truly is a game of inches and they’re coming out of those battles with the puck. We had a lot of possession but a lot of it was perimeter and ultimately Dundee stung us when they had their chances.”
Photo: Derek Black
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