Dundee Stars coach Omar Pacha is keen to see his team transfer their great Challenge Cup into the league campaign.
The Stars have won five out of six to win Group A and stride into the quarter finals, but in the league, their form sees them with only two success out of seven, including last night’s 8-6 loss to Cardiff Devils.
But Pacha, talking on this week’s British Ice Hockey podcast, insists his team have made big steps since last season, in a campaign that saw them miss the play-offs for the second consecutive time.
“It’s been good, but there’s challenges everywhere and I like the personnel we brought in and I like the atmosphere in the room,” he said.
“We’ve made tremendous strides and I’m looking to transfer the momentum from the Challenge Cup to the league and I think it’s an exciting season coming up.
The Stars coach couldn’t praise netminder Alex Leclerc enough (PHOTO: Derek Black)
“We started off really well against Glasgow in that first weekend then we had that mixture of games, going on a four-game losing run then missing out in overtime to Sheffield.
“We had a really good talk and established a few things we wanted to get better at so went back to work and since the Belfast game, it’s gone from there.”
Pacha spoke highly of netminder Alex Leclerc, who has been a major difference between the pipes for the club in their good start to the campaign.
But the Stars coach is hoping for his defence to step up and stem the flow of chances that has kept Leclerc busy in games.
He added: “There are games where I wish we could limit the scoring chances, especially the game we conceded five or six, but Alex has been great so far and I think there’s more to come from him.
“It’s exciting and we value him so much, but it’s early in the season and we look at it two ways, in the Challenge Cup and the league and we hope to start making some noise in the league game.”
Check out the full interview on the British Ice Hockey podcast here:
https://audioboom.com/posts/7392792-british-ice-hockey-podcast-10th-october-2019
