The PeeWee Stars finally enjoyed some good fortune of their own on Sunday night in Leamington. With just under six minutes to play in overtime, and the score tied 2-2, a Southpoint defender routinely skated back and picked up the puck just inside his own blue line. Suddenly, with Lady Luck smiling from above, the defender performed his best impression of Bambi on ice, tripped over his own skates and fell to the ice, leaving T.J. Turley with the puck and an unobstructed path to the net. Casually, like he has done it a thousand times before, T.J. skated in on the Southpoint goalie, made a couple of feeble attempts at a deke, before lifting the puck over the outstretched pad of the Riverside goalie and giving the Stars its second consecutive victory when facing elimination.
Even in the absence of their pre-game motivational speaker and player introductions, Jesse Tottle was able to open the scoring for the Stars with a nice wrap-around midway through the first period. Andrew Baxter and Josh Mallory earned assists on the play. The Stars killed off a Southpoint powerplay to end the first period and took a 1-0 lead into the second.
Southpoint evened the score five minutes into the second period as they picked off an errand cross ice clearing pass just inside the Stars blue line and drove to the net. Rogie Tottle managed to stop the original shot but the rebound was slammed home to tie the game at 1-1.
The vaunted Southpoint power play struck again in the series with just over two minutes to play in the second period. Riley Enns unleashed a cannon of a shot from the top of the circle which whizzed past the shoulder of a screened Rogie to put the Stars behind by one heading into the final period.
Facing another do-or-die situation, the Stars capitalized on their first period power play opportunity of the third period to tie the game at 2-2. Jesse Tottle, working from his office behind the Southpoint net, spotted Isaac Robinson in front and feathered a beautiful tape-to-tape saucer pass over a defenders stick. Isaac wasted no time as he one-timed the pass passed a bewildered Southpoint netminder.
The Stars enjoyed three more power plays in the third period, including one in the final 22 seconds of the game, but could not convert any of their opportunities.
In overtime, the stage was set for T.J.'s heroics, netting his fourth goal in as many games, much to the jubilation of Stars players and fans.
It is a measure of a team, to see how hard they are willing to work to get to their feet after being knocked to their knees. The Stars have shown tremendous character and determination to claw their way back to their feet and are now in position to land a knock out blow of their own on Tuesday night at the Timken Centre. Well done.
Until Tuesday... keep your stick down, cover the short side and don't get deked.