To say that the Midget AE Jr. Stars have been close to winning most of the games they’ve played, would be the understatement of the year. Such was the case on Sunday night against the Port Stanley Jr. Sailors who defeated our Stars with only 16 seconds remaining on the clock. Rather than dwell on the defeat though, the boys used their solid play for most of the game Sunday, as inspiration for Monday night’s game versus the Mt Brydges Cougars.
The Midget AE Stars have been a pretty loose bunch all
season despite their record and the heartbreaking loss the night before, but
these boys hadn’t been broken yet. With
another shuffle of the lineup card Monday night, the Stars played as solid a
first period as they have all year at the beautiful Komoka Community
Centre. Despite being outshot 6-3 with
all 3 shot coming from defenseman turned forward for the night Kaiden Beer, the
Jr. Stars played well. Josh ”Dozer”
Nesbitt provided solid goaltending and our back checking and defensive zone
play was much improved even on the much larger ice surface. The first period ended in a 0-0 draw but the
boys seemed to have a spring in their stride.
The second period started off with a bang when Thomas
Cosgrove stuffed the puck in the side of the net just 24 second in with assists
going to Cody Howard and line-mate Aiden Bilyea. Just under two minutes later Matthew Roberts
potted a beauty with the assist going to Alex Sanders and the Midget AE Stars
were fired up. Then came the heavily
disputed third goal on a shot from Cody Howard that slipped through the Mt
Brydges goalies equipment and ever so slowly rolled towards the goal line.
Either as it crossed the line or before, Matthew Iachetta made sure it would
count by tapping it home. (The official score sheet reads – Goal – Cody Howard
– Assist – Matthew Iachetta – Assist – Andrew Wood). Either way we were up 3-0. Just to make sure he wasn’t ripped off, Matt
Iachetta potted a beauty over the goalie’s left shoulder just 6 seconds later. Cody Howard then scored his second or first
of the game to round out the scoring for the Stars in the second. In between, the Cougars scored one of their
own, but at this point the score was 5-1 in our favor and the shots in the
period were 19-4.
The boys on the bench were instructed to keep their foot on
the pedal and with the help of the solid defensive zone coverage, continued to
keep the Cougars pretty much at bay. I
say pretty much because two and a half minutes into the third, Sam Munday of
the Cougars scored his second of the game to keep things interesting at
5-2. Undaunted by this, our Stars
pressed on and Cody Howard scored his second or third of the game with assists
going to Aiden and Iachetta. Later in
the period Andrew Wood found himself all alone with the puck in the high slot
and fired a laser off the back bar in the net to make it 7-2. After a quick
conference with his linesmen and some protests from the Cougars bench they
determined that the puck had struck the red outside crossbar and was ruled “no
goal”.
Regardless the Midget AE Stars walked out of Mt Brydges with
the 6-2 win and some much needed confidence. Our biggest offensive output of the season and
the fifth time in a row they have outshot their opponent. The team will practice once before the St
Thomas AE tournament this weekend where they will host Tecumseh and Owen Sound
on Friday with Hespler and Amherstburg on Saturday.