Nov 20, 2011 | stottle | 1162 views
Turley Leads Stars Over Wolves
T.J. Turley's 70 foot wrist shot past startled Waterloo Wolves' goalie Blake Jensen midway through the third period proved to be the winner as the St. Thomas Bantam Jr. Stars skated away with a 5-3 victory to open the second half of their season. Trent Jordan was equally startled, perhaps because he was able to keep the puck airborne for the entire 70 feet or perhaps because his shot managed to elude Jensen. Nonetheless, it was a well deserved goal for T.J., who was probably the Stars' best player on a rare Saturday night tilt at the Timken Centre.
Derek Folkard, who continues to improve his overall play and impress his teammates, opened the scoring for the Stars at 10:26 of the first period. Taking a long stretch pass from Isaac Robinson in the neutral zone, Folksie faked right and dashed left past the lone Wolves' defenseman before shelfing a nasty wrister high over Jensen's right shoulder.
Waterloo tied the game in the first minute of the second period. With Michael McArthur in the sin bin, the Wolves power play decided that they didn't want MicMac to sit in the penalty box for the entire two minutes. After an impressive display of passing and puck control, Brady Schnarr blasted one past a helpless Brennan Agius at 14:33 of the second period.
The Wolves took their only lead of the game at 4:45 of the second period when Colin Prentice's long slapper found some twine just inside the left post. However, on a brilliant solo effort, Dane Jacoletti picked up loose puck along the side boards inside the Waterloo zone, cut past one Wolves' defender toward the slot and ripped a shot bar-down to tie the game at 2-2 heading into the intermission. Derek Folkard earned the lone assist on the play.
After listening to some particularly poignant words in the dressing room, the Stars came out with some renewed vigour in the third period. Zach Smith put the Stars ahead at 10:39 of the third period. After intercepting an errant Wolves pass at his own blue line, the big defender steamed through the neutral zone and let go a long, hard, and most importantly low, wrist shot on Jensen. Demonstrating his determination on the play, Zach powered past both Waterloo defencemen, picked up his own rebound and slammed it home for a 3-2 Stars lead.
Waterloo tied the game at 3-3 with six minutes left on the clock. But that only set the stage for T.J.'s heroics less than a minute later. Trying to dump the puck into the Wolves' zone from outside the blue line, T.J.'s aforementioned wrister found its way into the back of the net to give the Stars a 4-3 lead. Josh Mallory earned an assist on the game winner.
Derek Smith's empty netter with sixteen ticks left on the clock closed out the scoring for the Stars. Jesse Tottle and Dane Jacoletti were credited with assists on the goal.
Game Notes: In a strange twist in the scheduling, the Stars play the very same Waterloo Wolves' team again at the Timken Centre next weekend....Andrew Baxter remained sidelined for the fourth consecutive game, this time with a badly sprained ankle. His status for next week's battle with Waterloo remains questionable.....Brennan Agius made several key saves to keep his team in the game and give them a chance to win....Rogie Tottle missed the team's warm up and showed up on the bench in a white road jersey...there are unconfirmed reports that he was also carrying a large french fry and a red Gatorade. The investigation continues....until next week, keep your stick on the ice and keep reaching for the Stars.