Oct 29, 2010 | stottle | 412 views
Jacoletti Leads Stars Over Hawks
The Minor Bantam Jr. Stars remain unbeaten at home following a solid but unspectacular 4-2 win over the West London Hawks on Friday night at the Timken Centre. Stars captain Dane Jacoletti led the way for the Stars with two goals and a solid defensive effort. The win keeps the Stars unbeaten at home during the regular season and temporarily moves them into a three-way tie for first place with Hamilton and Waterloo.
For only the second time this season, the Stars found themselves trailing in the game's early going. From a sharp angle, West London Hawks' centre Fisher Wharry somehow found a hole between the post and an otherwise well-positioned Stars goalie Brennan Agius to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead.
The Stars seemed to struggle with their timing against a scrappy Hawks team until the last five minutes of the first period. it was then that Bryce Kernohan decided to unleash the special move he had been waiting to unveil for several years. Bryce picked up a loose puck in front of the Hawks net and absolutely mesmerized the Hawks defence by spinning around several times with the puck stuck to his skate, before releasing the biscuit to Jesse Tottle, who promptly found a wide-open Michael McArthur beside the Hawks net. MicMac made no mistake as he went top cheese with an absolutely sick backhander to tie the score at 1-1 heading into the second period.
The second period was much more entertaining for Stars fans than the first. Midway through the second period, Alex Sanders was signaled for hooking when he rudely lifted the stick of a Hawks forward attempting to shoot on the Stars net. A penalty ensued and Alex was escorted to the penalty box. Alex sat in the box by himself and felt shame. After two minutes he was set free.
Immediately after Alex was set free, Michael McArthur spotted Andrew Baxter coming off the bench and sauced a beautiful break-away pass from his own blue line. Andrew spread some decent jam on Hawks goaltender, Ian O'Donnell, but was ultimately denied by his right pad.
With less than three minutes remaining in the second period, Dane Jacoletti put the Stars ahead for good when he pounced on a rebound during a Stars powerplay and deposited it over the outstretched pad of O'Donnell. Andrew Baxter and Matt Thomson earned assists on the play.
Less than a minute later, Derek Smith executed a brilliant three-on-two rush as he fed Jesse Tottle streaking between two Hawk defenders. Jesse lit the lamp with a perfectly placed Davey Keon-like backhander top shelf, where Jodie keeps the tickle trunk, to give the Stars some breathing room and a 3-1 lead when the puck dropped to open the third period.
Dane Jacoletti extended the Stars lead to 4-1 when he tickled the twine with 7:25 remaining on the clock following some dogged forechecking by Andrew Baxter. Lil Baxter earned his sixth point in the last two games with the assist.
The Hawks scored the final goal of the game on a wicked slap shot by Spencer Templeton from the blue line, with less than two minutes remaining, past a screened Brennan Agius. Nonetheless, the Stars held on for their seventh win of the season against a lone defeat.
Game Notes: Josh Reda satisfied his levied fines for failing to notify the team of his expected absence from two team functions this week when he made a pre-game warm-up appearance with a dust broom instead of his stick.... Is there a better outlet passer in the league than Zack Smith?...The Stars out-penalized the opposition for the tenth time in the last eleven games. Not a recipe for prolonged success....Reluctantly, another correction must be made from my previous blog. According to unnamed sources, Stacey and Jodie defeated Shrek and Totts on Saturday night in Orillia at the game of euchre before Suzi and ShareBear accomplished the feat. Just sayin' but that seems unlikely doesn't it?...The schedule seems to be headed toward a titanic battle for first place between the Stars and Hamilton on November 12th in Hamilton. To quote Billy Red Lyons, "don't you dare miss it". Until next time....keep your stick on the ice and keep reaching for the Stars.