Marc LeFebvre, Dundee Stars head coach, a man who played 38 games for Edinburgh Capitals more than a decade ago, guided his men to back-to-back wins over new-look Fife Flyers at the weekend, and he declared: “We found a way to win.”
The Tayside team edged Saturday’s first instalment 3-2 after overtime and then won 3-2 after penalty shots at The Fife Ice Arena 24-hours later, Fife failing to convert on four attempts whole Dundee converted two of theirs.
There were positives for both teams and, in particular, the attendance at Kirkcaldy where nearly 3,000 fans watched the action.
Fife now have a week to prepare for their trip along the M8 to Glasgow Clan on Saturday. Then they entertain Belfast Giants on Sunday, both games are in the Challenge Cup. The phoney war is over and now the real stuff starts.
Jamie Russell, Fife’s head coach, was naturally disappointed to lose both games last weekend but added: “There were tons of positives.”
Looking ahead he said: “I don’t know if game one of the season is pressure, we just want to keep getting better every single week for us to get to where we want to go, but we have taken a step and next weekend we want to take another step.”
Overall, he said: “I thought it was scrambly on the road (on Saturday) and then Shane (Owen) made some great saves. I thought we had a good start (on Sunday) and we finished our hits and we needed to capitalise on a few more of our chances.
“We over passed. We had opportunities to shoot and crash the net for rebounds and I thought we were trying to pass the puck into the net. If you have a Grade A chance you shoot the puck, rip it.”
The Canadian, who coached in Italy last season, praised the fans who turned out to watch the pre-season game and described the attendance at The Fife Ice Arena as “amazing”. The 59-year-old added: “The crowd and that support, you could feel the energy in the building.
“It is a tough place to play. We were a tough team to play against and that is what we want to establish.”
FOCUS: Jamie Russell on the bench at Kirkcaldy. Picture by Derek Young
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