Jeff Hutchins indicated that a confidence-boosting result was on the cards and it arrived on Sunday night.
The Toronto-born player/coach was convinced his Dundee Stars squad had the ability to compete with the best and the Elite League strugglers shocked high-flying Sheffield Steelers on Tayside to give themselves a massive boost.
Stars snapped a seven-game losing streak and the two points take them to six points from 13 starts and lift them off the bottom of the table.
Edinburgh’s defeat at Fife, their ninth straight league reverse, sees the Murrayfield men, who finished bottom of the pile last season, propping up the table again.
Former Capitals sniper Martin Cingel and home hero John Dolan fired Dundee 2-0 ahead with two first-period strikes 51 seconds apart, but Steelers pegged them back to 2-2 by the 24th minute.
Dundee refused to buckle and goals from Igor Gongalsky and player/coach Hutchins saw the Tayside team home.
Relieved Hutchins said: “We’ve been working hard for this. I said last week I believed in this squad and they delivered.”
Mathieu Roy scored Sheffield’s goals and he was adjudged Sheffield’s man of the match.
Hutchins was named as Dundee’s top man but Marc Cheverie was a busy man dealing with 47 shots while his opposite number, Frank Doyle, dealt with 25.
At Kirkcaldy, it was joy for fired-up Flyers against injury-hit Edinburgh and the victory moves the Rosslyn Street men into sixth place.
Chris Auger claimed a treble for Flyers but misfiring Capitals shocked home fans by going ahead from Daniel Naslund after four minutes.
Scott Fleming and Danny Stewart added for Fife while Rene Jarolin scored a consolation second for Capitals.
Capitals’ netminder Tomas Hiadlovsky was a busy man, dealing with 36 shots while Kevin Regan had 21.
In England, second-placed Braehead Clan, knocked off the top of the 10-strong Elite League when they lost at Belfast Giants on Friday, went down 6-2 at Hull Stingrays, who are seventh with 11 points from 13 outings, three points adrift of Fife who have played one more game.
Jordan Mayer and Cory Tanaka both scored doubles for the home side while Leigh Salters and Zach Fitzgerald counted for Clan.