Win,Lose Or Draw, News, Bantam AE ('96-'97), U14-U15 Travel, 2010-2011 (St. Thomas Minor Hockey)

This Team is part of the 2010-2011 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Nov 28, 2010 | dvannoord | 895 views
Win,Lose Or Draw
The Bantam AE Stars travelled to the tiny barn in Ilderton on Thursday night for a tilt against the Jets.

When one looks at the standings in any sport, they very rarely tell the complete story. They can be misleading. They can appear favourable in one direction without taking into consideration what events unfolded to place a team where they sit in the rankings. Basically they can give a false sense of security, especially when facing a team everyone feels you "should" beat.

The Stars fell into that deceptive web on Thursday night.

Facing a short handed Jets squad the Stars may have taken things for granted, in fact the coaching staff knows they did.  Ilderton was there to play and the Stars seemed like they were just going through the motions at times.

Hanging onto a slim 1-0 lead through the 2 period break, the Stars couldn't seem to get a grip on the game throughout. Andrew Wood potted the Stars goal, as his red hot blade continued to torch the twine, but Ilderton was still hanging around. The longer you let a weaker less talented team hang around, you let them start thinking they can play with you and keep the game close. Their confidence grows with each passing minute. Before you know it, they're controlling the game. This wasn't completely the case on Thursday,but one could argue it was definitely a factor.

The Jets made the game tighter by potting a goal-mouth scramble after Josh Nesbitt lost the twig and couldn't bat away a shot jammed tight to the post midway through the 3rd. It was 1-1 and the Stars were sweating a bit. Andrew Wood did his best to relieve the heat as he potted a PP marker on a great feed from behind the net to stake the Stars to a 2-1 lead. The nursing continued throughout the 3rd period. The Stars were clinging and clinging,but the thread wasn't going to hold much longer. In fact it snapped with 3 minutes left on the clock in the 3rd. An errant pass into the neutral zone was picked off by a Jet attacker and it was in the back of the net and before the Stars knew it they had a 2-2 deadlock. The Stars had faultered late to give up their slim lead. No problem, it happens. Just get it back. Right?

Not so fast. With 2:49 left on the clock and the Stars in possession of the puck, the whistle blew. What were we going to the box for? Not a penalty this late in the game. After a bit of a delay, that was it. The game was over? We had played past our time curfew. What? Curfew in a hockey game? Apparently so. Now I have never heard of such a thing in Rep hockey, but apparently it happens quite often in Ilderton, according to the officials. One would think maybe it's worth looking into if it's becoming a common occurrence, but hey, I don't make the rules.

So the Stars were left with a 2-2 draw. Not the outcome they wanted, but still not a loss. Truth be told the score wasn't a loss, but the outcome definitely wasn't anything to smile about. The Stars let 2 slip away and they knew it.

When one looks at the standings in any sport, they very rarely tell the complete story. They can be misleading. They can appear favorable in one direction without taking into consideration what events unfolded to place a team where they sit in the rankings. Basically they can give a false sense of security, especially when facing a team everyone feels you "should" beat.

Final Score:

Stars 2 Jets 2