Dec 04, 2011 | stottle | 960 views
Stars Win 40th Annual SSE Tournament
The St. Thomas Bantam A Jr. Stars captured the 40th Annual SSE Wild tournament championship with a thrilling 3-2 overtime victory over the London Bandits on Sunday afternoon at the Western Fair Complex in London, Ontario. Tied 2-2 after regulation time, the two teams played one minute sessions of four-on-four, three-on three, and two-on-two before settling in for a series of one-on-one battles. After being foiled on six consecutive breakaways during overtime play, Andrew Baxter proved to be the hero when he finally snuck one between the wickets on his breakaway attempt to spoil an otherwise spectacular performance by Bandits netminder Ben McKellar.
The Jr. Stars opened the tournament by breezing to a relatively easy 6-0 victory over the Hillcrest Canadians on Friday evening. Andrew Baxter celebrated his return to the line-up after a lengthy absence, with two goals. Josh Mallory, Pierce Lawrence, Derek Folkard and Jesse Tottle also scored for the Jr. Stars. Brennan Agius earned one of the easier shut-outs of his career.
As often occurs when a team enjoys a lopsided win over a weaker opponent, the Stars acquired a few bad habits which seemed to stick with team for the remainder of the tournament. Defensive lapses, give-aways and poor clearing attempts only served to frustrate Stars fans and players against seemingly inferior opponents.
In the second game of the round robin format, the Stars played the London Bandits on Saturday afternoon at Nichols Arena. After a scoreless first period, Andrew Baxter put the Stars on the board with his third goal of the tournament. Pierce Lawrence and Dane Jacoletti earned assists on the play. The lead was short-lived however, as only seconds later, Bandits blueliner Sam Kim's shot from the point deflected off a Stars player and between the pads of Rogie Tottle.
The two teams remained tied until Jesse Tottle deflected a beautiful, low slap shot from Tyson Durfy past Ben McKellar with only 1:36 left to play. The power play goal proved to be the difference as the Stars skated away with a 2-1 victory.
The Stars concluded the round robin on Saturday evening against the Toronto Royals. Still suffering from a bad case of bad habits, the Stars struggled through an ugly, frustrating performance against a clearly outmatched Royals squad. Although the Stars outshot the Royals 34-6, it was only Jesse Tottle's shorthanded effort with less than five minutes to play that saved the Stars from an embarrassing loss. At 4:46 of the third period, Dane Jacoletti gave a perfect lead pass to send Tottle in on a breakaway from the centre line. Jesse made no mistake with a picturesque deke to end a self-proclaimed streak of at least 30 breakaways without scoring, and allow the Stars to come away with a 1-1 tie.
The championship game saw more of the same frustrating Stars bad habits as the Bandits carried the play for most of the first period and second period. However, the Stars were given some life as they were finally able to capitalize on a face-off play they have been working on for years. Starting from the right face-off circle in the Bandits end zone, Jesse tapped the puck between his opponents legs and stepped by his unsuspecting opponent. At the same time, Pierce Lawrence eluded his checker and broke for the Bandits net. In a flash, Jesse was able to hit Pierce with a perfect pass, who promptly deposited the puck into a yawning cage for a 1-0 Stars lead.
A power play goal midway through the third period by Andrew Baxter off a beautiful cross-ice feed from Michael McArthur sent the game into overtime.
The two teams played scoreless one minute periods of four-on-four, three-on-three, and two-on-two before reaching the final one-on-one overtime format. St. Thomas dominated each overtime period with several glorious scoring opportunities, including six breakaways. However, it wasn't until the 10th overtime period that Andrew Baxter was able to capitalize on the seventh Stars' breakaway when he wired a low wrist shot through the legs of Bandits netminder Ben McKellar, and give the Stars the championship.
Stars' Notes: The Stars played with a short bench for the entire tournament as several different players were out with illness or suspension....Dylan Newman played a couple of shifts in the first game before being suspended for the remainder of the tournament....T.J. Turley missed the first two games to finish off a three game suspension for his verbal tirade of an official....Derek Smith was forced to miss the final game with a one game suspension....Isaac Robinson was a scratch for the first game and Micmac missed all but the final game with illness....the Stars have gone an impressive 15-2-2 since their penalty-filled loss to the Bandits on October 7....the only two losses coming at the hands of the Waterloo Gold....it is possible that the Stars will have a full line-up for their next game against Kitchener on Tuesday....keep your fingers crossed.....until then...keep your stick on the ice and keep reaching for the Stars.