01 Feb 2025, 19:00 | Regular season | Dundee Ice Arena |
Dundee Stars | 4-3 OT | Guildford Flames |
Periods: Shots: | 1-2 (11-12) | 0-0 (12-9) | 2-1 (18-10) | 1-0 (1-2) | Total: 42-33 |
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Referees: #43 Graham Rodger, #20 Pavel Halas  |  Spectators: 1729 |
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Goals and assists
Dundee Stars came from two goals down in the final period to tie the
game and then took the extra point in overtime to move three points
clear in seventh place.
“I thought we played really well,
obviously we were down 3-1 in the third, but I thought we had the better
of the play for most of the game," said OT hero Zach Tsekos. "We gave
up a few too many grade A chances, but I thought as far as zone time and
time of possession it was one of our better games in a while, to
capitalise late in the third is something we deserved.”
Guildford
opened the scoring in a fast-paced first period in Dundee, with Samuel
Talbot crashing the net and scoring his first of the season after
tipping a shot off the rush past Richard Sabol at 07:28. The Stars
answered back just over a minute later at 08:49, equalising with a goal
in similar fashion. Brett Gravelle sent a shot towards the net, where
Keanu Yamamoto was waiting to knock the puck over Jake Kupsky.
Josh
Waller regained the lead for the visitors at 12:37, finding space along
the left wing and beating Sabol with a wrist shot over his shoulder to
make it 2-1 heading into the second period.
A scoreless second period saw numerous high-quality chances for both teams, putting both netminders to the test throughout.
The
Stars came close to evening the score, including a power play that saw
Brett Gravelle miss a wide-open net. The Flames, meanwhile, generated
multiple breakaways but failed to capitalise on any and extend their
lead.
Richard Sabol and Jake Kupsky both denied everything put their way, as the score remained 2-1 heading into the third period.
Straight
off a faceoff win, Brett Welychka beat Sabol from the top of the circle
to put the Flaes two ahead with less than 14 minutes remaining. A
Brendan Harms shot beat Kupsky through traffic to pull the Stars back to
just one behind 1:58 later, before the Stars then tied the game with 11
minutes to play - Keanu Yamamoto following up a Philippe Sanche shot
and firing home.
“We just stuck with it, knowing that we had
played a good game up until that point, eventually you just think you’re
going to break through and once we got the one we knew we were going to
get the second," added Tsekos. "It was just about breaking through with
that first one, and then from there we just kept on doing the same
thing we were doing for the first 50 minutes and eventually broke
through.”
The Flames had the best chance to win the game in OT
when Yamamoto was called for hooking, and they enjoyed 1:50 of powerplay
time. That was cut short by Travis Brown's holding minor, and just 55
seconds later Zach Tsekos fired home to win it for the home side.
Said
Tsekos of his OT winner: It’s just a flood of emotions, it makes you
feel like a little kid again so it was nice to score that one.”