Oct 28, 2012 | stottle | 934 views
Midget Stars Sweep Weekend
Coming off a disappointing loss in the semi-finals of the St. Thomas tournament the previous weekend, the St. Thomas Midget Jr. Stars rebounded to win both games this past weekend to climb into second place in the Alliance standings. The Jr. Stars went on a relative scoring rampage with 8 goals in two games, posting a 4-3 victory over the Sarnia Jr. Sting on Friday night and dominating the Woodstock Jr. Navy Vets 4-1 on Saturday afternoon, all within the friendly confines of the Timken Centre.
After a scoreless opening frame on Friday night, the Stars re-tooled power play struck twice early in the second period. Andrew Fenn was credited with scoring both goals for St. Thomas but by all accounts, it was leading scorer Keaton McIntyre who opened the scoring for the Stars. Taking a feed from power play quarterback Jesse Tottle, Keaton ripped a one-timer past Sting netminder Cole Thomas. Less than a minute later, Fenn was properly credited with the Stars' second goal with a beautiful deflection of a Tottle shot.
The Jr. Sting answered with two quick goals of their own midway through the second period to tie the game at 2-2 with just under six minutes remaining on the clock. However, Steve Drew replied with only 24 seconds left in the period to return the Stars' lead heading into intermission.
Four minutes into the final stanza, Sting forward Dean MacEachern evened the score again with an unassisted effort to tie the game at 3-3. But that just set the stage for the theatrics of first year forward Jesse Tottle. At 11:28 of the period, Jesse gave the Sarnia defenders a little razzle-dazzle, a little how-do-you-do, and finally a little thank-you-very-much before slipping a cheeky little shot between the pads of Cole Thomas. Taylor Emmerton was given the lone assist on the play. The highlight reel goal stood up as the game winner and also made a winner out of Stars' goaltender and womb-mate Greyson Tottle, who stopped 48 out of 51 shots directed his way.
On Saturday afternoon, St. Thomas had an opportunity to extract some measure of revenge against Woodstock, a team that most Stars' fans would agree stole their opportunity to win the St. Thomas tournament less than a week earlier. As it turned out and to the delight of Stars fans, the game was not much of a contest as the Stars dominated in every facet of the game from the drop of the puck.
The line of Fenn, Strong and Tottle were dangerous the entire afternoon and scored for the Stars' lone first period goal. After applying some consistent pressure in the Woodstock zone, Fenn pounced on a rebound in front of Vets' excellent goaltender Peter Poole to give the Stars their first lead of the game. Strong and Tottle assisted on the play.
Steve Drew doubled the Stars lead early in the second period. Assistant captain Keaton McIntyre raced wide right around the Woodstock defender and drove to the net. Poole made the first save and mistakenly thought he had covered the rebound. Fortunately for Stars fans, Poole was wrong and Steve Drew followed up the play to tap the loose puck into the yawning cage for a 2-0 lead.
Capitalizing on a rare scoring opportunity, Woodstock forward Greg Morrissette elected to shoot on a 2-on-1 break. The quick snap shoot beat Dan Black between the wickets to narrow the Stars lead to 2-1.
But that was as close as the Vets would get on this afternoon. Keaton McIntyre extended the Stars lead with a brilliant, short-side, top-shelf backhander with only 4.3 seconds remaining in the second period. The Stars continued to dominate play throughout the third period. Will Strong scored the only goal of the frame with a nifty wrap-around effort in the final few minutes to make the final 4-1.
Weekend Notes: Rookie Josh Mallory missed the weekend games with a fractured finger.....he will be re-evaluated later this week and his status remains questionable......the 51 shots given up against Sarnia on Friday was a season high, or low, for the Stars....by contrast, the Stars outshot Woodstock 26-8 in the first two periods of Saturday's tilt, and 35-24 overall.....the retooled power play appears more organized and seems to be finding some teeth....it will be an important weapon heading into the remainder of the season....next up for the Stars is the first place London Bandits on Hallowe'en night. A win over the Bandits would vault your favourite team to the top of the standings.