Midgets Split Weekend Games, News, Midget A ('95-'97), U16-U18 Travel, 2012-2013 (St. Thomas Minor Hockey)

This Team is part of the 2012-2013 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Dec 10, 2012 | stottle | 1394 views
Midgets Split Weekend Games
Thanks to some superior goaltending, solid defensive play and a couple of lucky bounces, the St. Thomas Midget Jr. Stars managed to come away with a split of their two games this past weekend.  Despite being dramatically outshot, Jesse Tottle's hat trick coupled with several timely saves by brother Greyson, allowed the Stars to escape with a 4-2 win against the Jr. Sting in Sarnia on Saturday afternoon.  The scenario repeated itself on Sunday afternoon at the Timken Centre in St. Thomas, but the offense could not capitalize on their opportunities, and an empty-netter sealed their fate as Jr. Stars suffered a hard-fought 3-1 defeat at the hands of the London Nationals.

Returning to the site of their only offensive explosion of the season, the Stars knew the Jr. Sting would be out to extract some revenge, especially against assistant captain Keaton McIntyre, who stung Sarnia for four goals in a 7-1 victory on November 8, 2012.  

After a scoreless first period which was played mostly in the St. Thomas zone, Sarnia opened the scoring at 9:17 of the second frame.  Sting defender Michael Kindrachuk's knuckleball from the blue line fluttered its way through a maze of players and past the outstretched blocker of Stars goaltender, Greyson Tottle.  There was some suggestion that the shot may have been deflected in the slot, but Rogie would be the first to admit that he should have made the relatively easy save.

Three minutes later, Jesse Tottle worked a give-and-go with Will Strong in the Sarnia zone, made a cheeky move through the legs of a Sarnia defender and neatly tucked the puck between the wickets of goaltender Cole Thomas to tie the game at 1-1.  Andrew Fenn also earned an assist on the play.

Jesse netted his second of the game less than a minute later.  Sarnia attempted to rim the puck around the glass behind their own net.  However, the puck hit a seam in the glass and bounced out front to an opportunistic Jesse Tottle who quickly slapped it past an unsuspecting Thomas to give the Jr. Stars a 2-1 lead.

With 1:27 left in the second period, miscommunication between Thomas and defenseman Ryan Lyle while on the power play, left the puck unattended near the left face off circle and the Sting net open.  With his usual hustle, captain Andrew Fenn was able to take advantage of the Sting misfortune and turn it into the Stars good fortune as he pounced on the loose puck and batted it into the empty net for a 3-1 St. Thomas lead heading into the intermission.

At 18:57 of the final frame, Jesse Tottle completed his first hat trick of the season.  While enjoying the man advantage, a brilliant point shot from assistant captain Taylor Emmerton was stopped by Thomas.  Andrew Fenn swatted at the rebound before Jesse Tottle picked up the garbage and tucked it home to extend the Stars lead to 4-1.

Less than a minute later, Greyson Tottle wiffed on an attempted poke check which allowed Koen Gendron to slide the puck underneath him and narrow the score to 4-2.

The Stars spent most of the third period in a vain attempt to try to get the puck out of their own zone.  However, some solid goaltending from Rogie prevented the Sting from cutting into the lead any further.   It was with great relief that the final buzzer sounded and the Stars were able to thankfully skate off with an ugly two points.

On Sunday afternoon, the Stars spent most of the time in their own end chasing the puck and the speedy London Nationals.  The Stars were liberally credited with four shots on goal in the first period which, thanks to the acrobatics of Stars netminder Dan Black, remained scoreless.

At 12:05 of the second period, some good shorthanded work by Will Strong created a turn over just inside the Nationals zone and allowed Keaton McIntyre to cruise in alone on London puckstopper Aiden Brown.  After some nifty stickhandling, McIntyre somehow snuck the puck between Brown's pads to give the Stars their only lead of the game.

London tied the game with just over four minutes remaining in the second period.  Carter Jackson made a nice centering pass out to Christian Athanasiou, whose shot rang off the left post but caromed to a wide open Jacob Nurse standing alone off the right post.  Nurse made no mistake and tied the score at 1-1.

At 2:04 of the second period, Black made a good initial save on a deflected point shot, but Athanasiou was there to slam home the rebound and give the Nationals a 2-1 lead heading into the break.

In the third period, the Stars did manage to generate a few chances to tie the game, most notably with the goalie pulled for an extra attacker.  Nick Phillips simply could not completely control a rebound off an Aiden Estabrooks point shot while staring at an empty cage.  The Nationals cemented their victory with an empty netter with 1:11 left in the game.

Weekend Notes: Nationals goaltender Aiden Brown impressed fans with his puckhandling skills and probably has a better shot than many of the Stars players.....the Stars were outshot 75-31 in the two weekend games, but solid defence and goaltending allowed them to come away with a split....it was nice to see the Stars get a few lucky bounces in the Sarnia game after struggling to score for much of the season.....After 29 games, Andrew Fenn leads the team in goals with 16 and points with 26.....Jesse Tottle leads with 15 assists.....Keaton McIntyre has spent the most time in the sin bin with 69 minutes....Dan Black is sporting an impressive 1.81 GAA and a .934 save percentage.....Taylor Emmerton is demonstrating his value to the team by playing both forward and defense positions with his usual enthusiasm.....Fenn and Stevie Ray Drew remains one of the few Jr. Star forwards that can be relied upon to consistently finish their checks.....next up for the Stars is a road game against the league leading Bandits, followed by a home and home series against the cellar-dwellers from Brantford.
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