Dundee Stars edged past Scottish rivals Fife Flyers 3-2 in Kirkcaldy to stay in touch with the playoff places.
“I didn’t think we had our best start, but it’s always nice to win an ugly one,” said Zach Tsekos, was scored one and was involved in the Stars’ other two goals on the night. “We’ve been on the wrong side of some of those games this season where we’ve played well and not got the result we deserved, so it’s nice to be on the right side of a game like that.
“We didn’t have a great month leading up to Christmas, so there’s no time to be slow out of this break. We have to continue to build on this now, we don’t have much other choice.”
The home side got the perfect start, going ahead in just over 92 seconds. Good work from Tyler Heidt saw him drive the net, and eventually poke home a rebound to put the Flyers ahead. Brendan Harms levelled at 4:44 with a tip on Drydn Dow’s shot just six seconds into a powerplay as the opening period ended all square.
The league’s basement side were back in front 125 seconds into period two when Kieran Craig burst down the wing to find Massimo Carozza for the tap-in in the slow. However, that lead again didn’t last long – this time is was Zach Tsekos finishing a 3-on-2 to tie the game at 25:34. Shane Owen made a point-blank save to deny Ben O’Connor an almost certain goal during the period.
Fife had a couple of odd-man rushes at the start of the final period but went for a pass too many instead of shooting and failed to take advantage. The game-winner came with 6:25 to go as an excellent Brett Gravelle pass set up Philippe Sanche for the back-post shot past a helpless Owen to put the Stars 3-2 up.
The home side went with six skaters in the final minute to try and tie things, but couldn’t work a good scoring opportunity in front of Jarrett Fisk, and the Stars took the points.
Photo: Flyers Images