Stars off bottom with home win

Photo: Derek Black

Dundee Stars moved off the foot of the Elite League table thanks to a narrow win over Guildford Flames on Sunday night.

“Our group’s resilience shone through today,” began Spencer Naas. “We had a big travel day on Saturday, up at 6am to go to Cardiff, play there, get back at 8am and then play a 5pm game today. I’m so proud of the guys to come out and get that win.”

Dundee opened the scoring through Justin Bean, who fired a slapshot from the point past Taz Burman at 13:00.

Kameron Kielly doubled the Stars’ lead early in the second period, capitalising on a turnover in the Flames’ zone and sending a one-timer past Burman.

Despite Emil Kruse making the initial save on a point shot from Marcus Tesink, Jack Jacome was first to the rebound and put it into the Stars’ net to make it 2-1 at 27:57.

“We’ve played a lot of hockey lately, so we wanted to try and manage the puck, play the right way and get into good spots,” said Flames’ Tyler Busch, whose side dressed just three forward lines. “It was a tough loss tonight.”

Spencer Naas restored the Stars’ two-goal advantage at 30:48, breaking in alone with speed and beating Burman five-hole.

Jake Coughler made it a one-goal game at 46:24, pouncing on a rebound after Travis Brown’s shot was saved by Kruse.

Jonathan McBean scored his second goal in two nights to make it 4-2 at 50:34, redirecting a shot from Jackson DeSouza past Burman.

“For the most part we’ve struggled to score this season, so it was nice to get forward and finish those chances,” added Naas.

Lewis Hook pulled the Flames back to within one at 51:43, tapping home a cross-crease pass from Coughler.

“We weren’t good enough, myself included,” concluded Busch. “We didn’t give enough. We were chasing at the end but it was unfortunate we waited that long. I liked our compete in the third period, but we have to have better starts.”

Despite late pressure from the Flames, including a missed chance on a wide-open net by Hook, the Stars held on to secure their first win of the new year.

“It was tough at the end there, it got very heated,” summarised Naas. “I thought the guys did a good job to stay focused and hang on. It was a huge win for us.”