Nov 12, 2012 | stottle | 990 views
Power Surge Gives Midgets Winning Weekend
After being offensive weaklings for most of the season, and especially last weekend, the St. Thomas Midget Jr. Stars finally flexed some offensive muscle this past week to take two out of three regular season games. The week started off with a road trip to the dive Sarnia locals call the Clearwater Arena on Thursday night, where the Jr. Stars laid a complete beat-down on the Jr. Sting with a 7-0 shellacking. St. Thomas returned home for an impressive 4-1 victory over the Stratford Culliton on Saturday afternoon before succumbing to the London Nationals 3-0 on Sunday afternoon.
To the chagrin of both teams in attendance at the Clearwater Arena in Sarnia, the arena officials were not aware the game was scheduled to be played. Rather two practices for local rep teams were scheduled in the allotted time. After some quick fenangling with the administrators of both associations, the practices were cancelled and the game was back on.
Once the puck dropped, there could be no doubt in the minds of any attendees that they were watching the Keaton McIntyre show. Mr. McIntyre recorded a rare natural hat trick by scoring the first three Stars' goals in succession, in three different situations, and all before the six minute mark of the second period.
His first goal was an even strength goal on a wicked clapper off a brilliant drop pass by Stevie Ray Drew just inside the Sting blue line. His second was an unassisted, shorthanded breakaway which caromed off the mask of Sting netminder, Cole Thomas before going bar down. His third was a tap in of a well-executed play on the man advantage. Jesse Tottle and Will Strong assisted on the play.
Will Strong made the score 4-0 with just under four minutes before intermission on a well executed set play. Off an offensive zone face off, Jesse Tottle tipped the puck between the skates of the Sting center as Strong broke for the far post. Jesse picked up the loose puck and fed a cross crease pass to Will for the easy tip-in.
Keaton netted his fourth marker of the game early in the third period while enjoying the man advantage. Will Strong and Aiden Estabrooks were credited with the assists. Will Strong added another power play tally less than three minutes later for his fourth point of the game. Finally, with 4:45 left in the third, Aiden Estabrooks bulged the twine with a nifty backhander for his first regular season goal to make the final score 7-0.
Against Stratford, Jesse Tottle opened the scoring just over four minutes into the game when he one-timed a quick pass by captain, Andrew Fenn from behind the net which banked in off the far post. Will Strong also assisted on the play.
Midway through the first period, following a nice cycle down low in the Stratford zone, Fenn spotted Dane Jacoletti alone at the point. Dane's slapper beat Culliton netminder Nicholas Snowdon low glove side to increase the Stars lead to 2-0. Jesse Tottle was also credited with an assist on Dane's first goal of the season.
After a scoreless second period, Jesse Tottle struck again early in the third. At 17:18, Strong fed Tottle driving hard to the net. Jesse was only able to tip the puck toward the Stratford goal but followed up on the play and knocked the rebound out of mid air past Snowden for a 3-0 Stars lead.
Stratford ruined Greyson's bid for his shutout of the season at 10:32 of the third period. Rogie deflected the first shot from the point off the back boards but the rebound came out to Culliton's forward Gavyn Helle who quickly slammed the puck home between the pipes to narrow the Stars lead to 3-1.
But with just under five minutes remaining, Fenn picked up a loose puck, deked around a lone Stratford defender and banked his backhander off the right post to make the final score 4-1.
On Sunday afternoon, the Stars were up against a speedy and deep London National team that was eager leap frog the Stars in the standings. Despite a valiant effort from goalie Dan Black, the St. Thomas was unable to muster any offence other than on the power play. As a result, an empty netter with just under two minutes remaining allowed the Nationals to escape with a 3-0 victory.
This Week With the Midgets: Dan Black was perfect on Thursday night in Sarnia, but he can be forgiven for trying to pass the time in the third period by counting spectators....the Jr. Sting managed but two shots only two shots on net in the final frame, and one was questionable as to whether it was actually on net......the seven goal outburst against Sarnia was three goals more than they scored in all three games last week and their season high of 4....Keaton McIntyre is the team leader in goals with 12, points with 21, and penalty minutes with 36.....Jesse Tottle leads the team with 13 assists....Jacoletti and Vandenbroek lead the defence scoring with 7 points a piece......somewhat interestingly, McIntyre, Fenn and Tottle all have a 68% face off win percentage....Dan Black is sporting a remarkable 1.58 GAA with a .938 save percentage.....next up for the Stars is a return match with the London Bandits on Saturday evening in London.