Jan 15, 2013 | snugent | 2502 views
MINOR ATOM STARS ADVANCE
This past weekend, the minor atom Stars traveled to Kingsville and Harrow for the preliminary tournament in the OMHA playdowns.
The Stars opened against the Essex Ravens. We started the game very strong and never really looked back and cruised to a 5-3 win in a chippy affair.Next up were the host team from Erie North Shores. The Stars had to play late Friday night and then travel 30 minutes to a hotel where the team got to sleep late. We woke up to a well rested host team. These conditions showed right from the opening face off and the Stars fell behind early and often en route to a 6-1 loss. This tourney was a double elimination so the Stars were still alive.
Next up was the Capitals from Southpoint. The Stars still weary from Friday's late night, came out strong and went up early. The game was 2-0 in the third period. The Stars then suffered a letdown, lost focus and Southpoint rallied to tie it at two and the game headed to overtime. The Stars took the play to Southpoint in the extra frame, eventually scored and advanced to Sunday.
The Stars had to play a pumped team from Essex again on Sunday. The Stars started strong and went up 1-0 after the first. Essex poured it on in the second and scored two quick ones to go up 2-1. With the Stars scrambling, Essex had one more glorious chance only to be robbed by the Stars goalie on a diving glove save. This seemed to spark the Stars, they scored in bunches and went on to win 6-2.
With the victory over Essex, the Stars now had to beat a very good team from Amherstburg, also known as the Stars. This game seemed to be between two evenly matched teams. The Stars poured on some pressure early and managed to take the lead 1-0 after one period. The second period was pretty even and the other Stars team managed to pull even and tie the game. Our team manged to stay focused and play disciplined hockey for most of the game. With some great effort early in the third the Stars once again took the lead. The teams spent most of the period exchanging chances and penalties. Amherstburg started to get some consistent pressure late in the third against a tired St Thomas team and managed to tie the game with under 5 minutes to play on a semi-questionable goal. Amherstburg continued the pressure on the Stars and called a timeout with 1:34 left to give their top players a rest. The face off was in our end, Amherstburg won the draw and the puck remained in the zone for almost the rest of the period. With time winding down, the Stars were able to get the puck out of our end and raced towards the opponents end, with the clock about to expire, the Stars shot from just over centre ice. The packed Kingsville arena watched as the puck traveled towards the Amherstburg goal took a funny hop and somehow found the five hole on a goalie that had played a great game and gave the Stars fits earlier. The puck actually went in the net with 0.2 seconds remaining. The Stars had done it and advanced to the next round, which is a 6 point series against the Erie North Shore Storm. With our backs against the wall on Sunday, our boys played 2 phenomenal games in a short period of time. We received exceptional goaltending with timely big saves. We also played great team defense in front of the goalies and our offensive game created a number of great chances.
Congratulations boys on a great day of hockey on Sunday, we didn't play our best on Friday and Saturday but manged to stay alive in the tournament. The first game vs Erie is on Sunday!
Go Stars Go!