Oct 10, 2012 | stottle | 723 views
Midgets Come Up Short in Woodstock
With the absence of Dane Jacoletti and Aiden Estabrooks, the St. Thomas Impressions Printing Midget Jr. Stars were forced to play with three defensemen against the eager Woodstock Jr. Navy Vets in their home opener on Sunday afternoon. The suspension of Max McVety and spacious Olympic-size ice surface certainly did not help the Stars' cause. Despite a determined effort, and outshooting the Vets 43-20, the Stars came out on the wrong side of a 5-2 final to even their season record at 1-1-1.
Starting his first game in goal for the Jr. Stars, Greyson "Rogie" Tottle flashed some leather early in the first period to keep the game scoreless. However, it only delayed matters as the Jr. Vets later took advantage of a defensive lapse deep in the Stars' zone and opened the scoring at 5:22 of the opening stanza. Coming off a cycle in the left corner, Nathan Stackhouse slid a perfect pass to an unguarded Greg Morissette cruising through the goal crease. Morissette made no mistake with a nifty move to his backhand before sliding the puck past a helpless Tottle.
Four minutes later, while enjoying the man advantage, the Jr. Vets doubled their lead with a well-orchestrated back door play. From his position on the right point, Woodstock defenseman Brandon Velda faked a shot and then hit captain Logan Shea with a beautiful cross-ice pass as he raced toward the left goalpost. Shea one-timed the pass into open side to give the home team a 2-0 lead heading into the second period.
The Stars narrowed the score at 8:48 of the second period. Jesse Tottle won a puck battle along the boards in the neutral zone and dished a short pass to St. Thomas captain Andrew Fenn. Fenn weaved his way into the high slot before unleashing a laser-like snap shot past the outstretched glove Nets netminder Peter Poole, upstairs where Norman keeps his grandmother.
Less than a minute later, Brodie Dunley made a brilliant stretch pass from deep in his own zone to hit a streaking (when is he not streaking?) Keaton McIntyre and send him in alone on Poole from centre ice. Unfortunately, Keaton's deke attempt was stuffed by the left pad of the Vet's puckstopper.
Not to be outdone, with just under four minutes to play in the second period, Woodstock forward Quinn Jackson raced in alone on the Stars' net. To the surprise of almost everyone in the arena, and most certainly Jackson, Rogie lunged out with an old-fashioned poke-check that would make Marty Brodeur proud. Both the puck and Jackson ended up harmlessly hitting the end boards to keep the score at 2-1 heading into the intermission.
Just forty seconds into the third period, Vets' forward Dan Haig tipped the puck past a Stars' defender in the neutral zone and raced to regain possession as the puck slid toward the goal line. From a sharp angle about fifteen feet from the goal line, Haig let go a slap shot that miraculously found its way over Rogie's shoulder into the top left corner of the net, and give Woodstock a 3-1 lead.
Undeterred, the Stars' bounced back less than a minute later. At 18:41, Steve Drew pounced on a rebound off of a Nick Phillips point shot and slammed the puck home to regain the one-goal deficit at 3-2. Brodie Dunley also earned an assist on the play.
Shortly thereafter, with the Stars continuing to gain momentum following a feverish scramble in front of the Woodstock goal, rookie Jesse Tottle elected to rant vociferously about a self-perceived infraction against him that may or may not have gone unnoticed by the referee. Not content with being fingered for simply a minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, Jesse continued his selfish, undisciplined rant until a 10 minute misconduct was assessed for harassment of the official (prior approval for the description of his conduct was obtained from the player). Momentum lost.
Despite a valiant effort by the Stars, Woodstock scored two more goals before the end of the third period to make the final score 5-2.
After Thoughts: Steve Drew's second goal of the season was a result of his willingness to go to the net to score goals. The team will need more players willing to get to the "tough areas" if they are going to reach their potential. Steve also had a team high nine shots on net......despite Jesse Tottle's protestations, the officiating was absolutely outstanding throughout the game....Woodstock went 1-for-4 with the man advantage....St. Thomas was 0-for-6....you have to admire the effort and determination of the three defensemen, Nick Phillips, Ryan Vandenbroek and Taylor Emmerton. It is certainly not easy to play with three defensemen on an Olympic-size ice surface.....next up for the Stars is a tournament in Owen Sound this weekend against the host team, Parry Sound and Barrie before moving on to the quarter-finals on Sunday morning.