Fife Flyers have a great incentive ahead of tonight’s clash with Dundee Stars at Kirkcaldy.
The home side want to celebrate their 200th Elite League game with victory over their rivals.
However, Dundee also have a target as they need seven goals for 800 in the league.
Two Fife players are nearing personal milestones. One of Fife’s leading marksmen, Ned Lukacevic, needs two points for 100 in all competitions and Stars forward Bari McKenzie needs a point for 100.
It was Dundee who came away with the points in last Sunday’s Forth/Tay derby at the Dundee Ice Arena.
The shutout win was welcome as it ended a five-game losing sequence against the Rosslyn Street club this term.
Fife won the first meeting at their home rink 5-0 and followed up with a 7-5 success. Todd Dutiaume’s side have also triumphed 5-3, 3-2, and 2-0 at The Dundee Ice Arena.
Jeff Hutchins, Dundee’s player/coach, hopes the result can be followed up.
He admits Marc Cheverie, Dundee’s goaltender, won the man-of-the-match award and the former Florida Panthers draft pick will need to be in top form to earn a second straight win.
He said: “It’s always tough against Fife. The guys, however, know what they have to do. We must keep winning to have a chance of reaching our goal, making the end-of-season play-offs.
“Every game is a play-off game for us and I’ve told the guys that. All the teams are competitive and are picking up points and we need to match them.
“Our job is to keep winning and let other teams worry about us.
“The atmosphere was great but Saturday in Fife will be a different game. We’ll take plusses from our 3-0 win at Dundee and we’ll work on things in training.
“We’ll need a whole team effort, good goaltending and we’ll need to take our chances.”
Sixth-placed Fife have 38 points from 41 games and need to stem a disappointing recent run.
Dutiaume found Sunday’s reverse “hard to swallow” and has worked the squad hard in training.
He is demanding greater effort and said: “We’re making things difficult for ourselves. Some guys are working hard, some guys are not and we need everybody working hard if we want to win hockey games.”
Meanwhile Dundee Tigers have a catalogue of injuries ahead of their home Scottish National League clash with Paisley Pirates tonight.
Ian Carstairs, the club’s player-coach, warned his short-benched squad that it will be a tough physical battle.
Carstairs said: “We’re getting to the business end of the season with only three league games remaining.
“Our focus is to maximise our points in those games and give ourselves the best possible position going in to the play-offs.”
He added: “Paisley are ahead of us in the standings so it’s key for us to try and close the gap.
“They are a good team with a group of experienced players and games between us over the last couple of years have been hotly contested.
“We need to be prepared for a physical battle on Saturday but must stay disciplined.
“Injuries are still blighting the team just but we have enough depth to adapt.”