Four straight goals earn Stars huge comeback win

Photo: Derek Black

Dundee Stars came back from 4-1 to beat Cardiff 5-4 at the DIA, and hand the Devils their second consecutive loss on their Scottish triple header.

The first period in Dundee saw back-and-forth action at both ends of the ice, with the shots sitting narrowly in Cardiff’s favour at 13–12.

“We played good, even early on we were playing pretty good, just the goals they scored were self inflicted and we did it to ourselves,” said Matt Berry, who would score a hat trick.

Cole Sanford opened the scoring at 15:48, capitalising on a takeaway in the Stars’ zone. The turnover sent the Devils on a three-on-two rush, and Sanford made no mistake in close, firing a shot past the blocker of Emil Kruse to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

Kristoff Kontos made it 2-0 early in the second, firing a rebound past Kruse after the Stars’ netminder had made an initial save on Josh MacDonald.  

MacDonald then made it 3-0 just twenty-six seconds later, breaking in alone against Kruse and slotting a backhand into the Stars’ net. 

Jonathan McBean pulled one back for the Stars at 24:35, pouncing on a loose puck after Christian Stoever had stopped Matt Boudens’ wraparound attempt. 

Just as it seemed the score would remain 3-1 heading into the second intermission, a fortunate bounce in the Stars’ zone set fell to Kohen Olischefski in the high slot, who sent a slap shot past Kruse to make it 4-1 at 38:38. 

Less than a minute into the third period, Spencer Naas made it a two-goal game, sliding the puck under the pads of Stoever at 40:41.

Christian Stoever attempted to play the puck behind his net, however, inadvertently sent the puck to Matt Berry, who slid the puck into a wide open net at 51:50. 

Just over two minutes later at 53:59, Hampus Olsson equalised on the powerplay, sending a spinning shot from the slot past Stoever. 

Matt Berry gave the Stars their first lead of the night at 55:14, deking past a Cardiff defender and firing backhand shot past Stoever for his second goal of the game. That goal marked his hat trick. "I think it was just a never give up attitude. I don’t think we were playing that bad of a hockey game, so scoring early in the third gave us a little energy and we kept fighting”, added Berry.

Despite late pressure from the Devils, Dundee held on to secure two crucial league points. 

Berry concluded: "It’s awesome. Any time you can score in front of the home fans and hear this place get loud it’s awesome so we need to build off it going into next weekend."