The best kept sporting secret in Dundee is now anything but.
With Dundee Stars currently producing the most exciting ice hockey in Britain in 2018 and breaking attendance records along the way, head coach and general manager Omar Pacha is setting his sights high.
A season that was looking like a write-off a couple of months ago is now full of promise.
“We’ve won eight of our last nine games,” Pacha reflected. “So this year we’re eight and one. Things are going really well.
“In the form table for the last 10 games, we’re top of the league.
“It’s been really positive. There have been some new faces come in and everybody is playing better.
“We’ve struggled with injuries throughout the season. They never stopped. So getting players back has been big for us.
“When we were down we kept pushing and now you can see a positive outcome.
“We’re one point behind Braehead, who are eighth, with three games in hand. We’re six points behind Fife in the Conference which, considering everything, is amazing. The Conference is 24 games between the Scottish teams – the winner automatically gets into the quarter-final play-offs. We’re still pushing for that.
“We were bottom at the start of the season and then at Christmas-time it looked like we would be second bottom. It was tough.
“The one thing that was frustrating me was we had to play a different way because we were so short of bodies.
“The way we are playing now is how I wanted us to play from the start of the season.
“A lot of people expected us to be down and out by this point.
“I always thought there was a chance.
“It’s a feel good story.”
It certainly is. And it’s one that more and more people from Tayside are wanting to get a piece of.
“There were 2,000 people at Dundee for a Saturday night at hockey,” said Pacha.
“We appreciate the coverage we’re getting from the likes of yourselves. Everybody is talking about the Stars and you can see the interest building.
“This was the best kept secret in Dundee for so many years. At the start when I came in I wondered, ‘do people really know about the Stars?’
“Now, with the focus on an event-driven atmosphere with a product that is world class, people are recognising how good it is.
“It’s a good vibe.”
Stars face the Edinburgh capitals tomorrow at the Dundee Ice Arena and follow that up with a trip to Nottingham the day after.
The first target is to make the last eight play-offs and then they want to be back in Nottingham for finals weekend.
“When we went through that bad patch I just hoped we could weather the storm,” said Pacha. “Now the quarter-finals are the minimum I expect.
“We have the team that we want and we need to keep pushing and hopefully go through to Nottingham.”
Pacha revealed that the Stars’ renaissance is winning over fans up and down the country.
“Everybody is rooting for us across the league,” he said.
“I don’t like to talk about budgets but we’re not the biggest.
“Ice hockey fans across the UK are seeing this as a big story – a team that was down and had so many injuries is coming back and winning games against good teams.
“We’re not being lucky. We’re taking it to the other teams. We’re out-playing them.
“Even the game we lost, we didn’t get the puck luck. In my mind, we could have been nine and 0.
“Momentum is key and winning is contagious.
“Saturday (against Fife Flyers) was a perfect example. We didn’t play to our standards but we found a way to win. That showed me that now we’re a good hockey team.
“After winning Saturday we had confidence for the Sunday game and won that too.
“Scoring goals was a struggle at the star of the season but we’ve turned that around. In the last 10 games we’ve been averaging three-and-a-half goals a game. You can’t complain about that.
“We’re focusing on our positives. We’re getting there by being aggressive and attacking teams with a lot of speed. That’s the main reason we’re winning games.”
Never in Elite League history has a bottom-of-the-table team risen that season to be champions. And don’t think Omar Pacha doesn’t know it.
This feel good story hasn’t reached its end yet.
