Mar 23, 2010 | stottle | 1127 views
Two Stars Tie Series
On the Presstran rink, the PeeWee Stars survived a late scare but held on for a 5-3 victory Tuesday night at the Timken Centre to split the first two games of their Constellation Playoff Championship series against the London Jr. Knights. At the same time on the Walker rink, the Jr. B Stars were busy tying their semi-final series with the London Nationals at two games a piece.
Despite playing shorthanded for four of the first ten minutes, a harbinger of things to come, the Stars played a relatively strong opening period with each team trading few scoring opportunities. Rogie Tottle made a couple of important saves early in the period, especially on scrambles during the penalty kill, to keep the period scoreless heading into the second period.
The Stars opened the scoring ninety second into the second period. Andrew Baxter once again displayed his quick hands with a beautiful wrap-around goal while on the power play. Jesse Tottle and Dane Jacoletti earned assists on the play.
Jesse Tottle doubled their lead four minutes later on another Stars power play as he flashed a toe drag around a Knights defender and dished a sweet cross-crease pass to a waiting Andrew Baxter for the slam dunk. Derek Smith was credited with the second helper.
Already sporting a 2-0 lead heading into the third period, the Stars struck again only eight seconds into the frame. Josh Mallory, with his second goal in as many games, picked up a loose puck in front of the Knights net and threaded the puck between the wickets to give the Stars a 3-0 lead. Andrew Baxter was credited with the assist.
Matty Thomson, sporting a spiffy new haircut for the game, executed a beautiful play the Stars' defensive crew had been working on extensively at practice. Jesse Tottle, with a rare face-off win, drew the puck back to Zack Smith who made a perfect cross-ice feed to Matty for the Dion Phaneuf-like one timer which found the inside of the right post and gave the Stars a seemingly comfortable 4-0 lead with only twelve minutes remaining on the clock.
However, it was just about this time that the Stars' penalty parade began. Over the final twelve minutes of the game, the Stars were punished with a total of nine minor penalties. Taking advantage, the Knights struck for two quick power play goals, the second being scored with a two man advantage, to cut the Stars' lead in half at 4-2 with still nine minutes to go in the game.
Less than a minute later, Jesse eased the tension with a fluttering wrist shot from the slot that banked in off the left post and return the three goal cushion for the Stars.
The penalties continued for a bewildered and frustrated Stars squad. The Knights scored on another two man advantage to make the score 5-3 with four minutes remaining. To make matters even more interesting, the Stars played the final three minutes of the game two men short. Credit Matty Thomson, Dane Jacoletti, Josh Reda and a freshly tanned T.J. Turley for some excellent penalty killing as the Knights would come no closer and the game ended with a 5-3 Stars win.
Just to finish things off in fashion, Derek Smith was given a ten minute misconduct at the end the game for harassing a referee. While Smitty's conduct cannot be condoned, several Stars' fans would have welcomed the opportunity to do likewise.
Rogie Tottle was solid for the Stars in net. The Stars' power play went three for five on the evening. Jesse Tottle and Andrew Baxter each enjoyed four point games. T.J. Turley would not shut up in the dressing room, either before or after the game. A special thanks for the anonymous cupcake donour. They were delicious and vanished within seconds of entering the dressing room.
The Stars will look to take a 4-2 series lead on Thursday night. Until then....keep your stick down, cover the short side, and don't get deked.