Lubomir Vaskovic netted a glory double on his home debut as Dundee Stars beat Nottingham Panthers 4-1 on Tayside in ice hockey’s Elite League.
The 27-year-old Slovakian netted on the power play after 17 minutes and scored the home side’s fourth on an empty net less than two minutes from time.
His goals were the icing on the cake for the short-benched Tayside team who are crippled by injuries and iced only 12 skaters.
But their 22nd win in regulation time keeps them in the hunt for a top-three finish in the league.
Panthers, last season’s Grand Slam winners, suffered an early blow with Alaskan-born Billy Bagron opening the scoring for Stars after eight minutes.
Vaskovic made it 2-0 after Panthers hit penalty trouble and Russian-born Nikita Kashirsky, the Tayside club’s assistant player/coach, netted a third after 44 minutes.
Greg Jacina gave Panthers late hope with a power play strike with less than three minutes left. And they gambled by withdrawing their netminder only for the move to backfire with Dundee’s player/coach Jeff Hutchins and Paul Swindlehurst, a recent call-up to the Great Britain squad, combining to set up Vaskovic for his second with just over two minutes left.
The victory completed a good weekend for Stars, who saw off Hull Stingrays 2-1 on Saturday night. Newcomer Jack MacLellan netted the game-winner at Hull less than 12 minutes from time.
Skipper Brock McPherson scored the opener after 36 minutes and Jason Silverthorn levelled 12 minutes later.
Fife Flyers’ coach Todd Dutiaume last night praised his squad for remaining in the Elite League play-off shakedown after pushing in-form Belfast Giants to the wire on Saturday.
The fired-up Fifers claimed a point after taking the newly-crowned league champions to the wire in an entertaining head-to-head with Giants at Kirkcaldy.
The Irish team may have extended their unbeaten run to 16 games when Jeff Szwez fired the winner only three seconds from the end of overtime.
But Dutiaume said: “We pushed them and they stepped it up a notch. They capitalised on our mistakes but the guys played really well and not many teams have taken points from Belfast this season.
“They are the best team in our league but our boys stepped up and made it difficult for them.”
Dutiaume, who guided his side to six straight wins before Saturday’s home clash, added: “Sure I’m disappointed to have lost but the guys are still in the play-off race which is pleasing.
“We weren’t in the race a few weeks ago but we are now and we have a week off before we face Edinburgh Capitals here (at Kirkcaldy) next Saturday.”
Fife had led 2-0 thanks to goals from Ned Lukacevic and Bobby Chaumont and 4-3 with Jordon Fulton and Derek Roehl countering Giants strikes from Adam Keefe and a double from Kevin Saurette.
The champions dug deep to end Flyers’ winning run at six games thanks to a strike from Jeff Mason to level in the 51st minute and Szwez claimed the game-winner in sudden death overtime.
Flyers still remain on the heels of Cardiff, Hull and Coventry as the play-off race hots up.