Jan 12, 2020 | David Dienesch | 524 views
Final Tournament of the season in Aylmer
Our final tournament of the season wrapped up on Sunday Jan 12th in Aylmer.
The Stars began the Aylmer tournament on Friday morning vs the St Marys Rock.
Having been drawn with the first game of the tournament at 8am Friday morning, our Stars were ready to work from the puck drop. The Stars came out flying, putting a quick goal in 18 seconds into the game. Hitting the 3 minute mark into the first period, the Stars put in another goal to go ahead 2-0. A goal from St Marys with less than 5 minutes to go in the first and the score was 2-1. A scoreless 2nd period led to a breakout 3rd period where the Stars put 4 goals in to seal the victory 6-1.
Our next game came Friday night 9 hours later against the North London Nationals. The Stars clearly showed signs of too much pool time and we weren't ready for the Nationals. Game 2 ended in a 9-0 loss.
With game 2 wiped from the memory bank, the Stars headed into game 3 vs Lambeth Lancers who were undefeated through their first two games. With a win, it was our chance to capture 1st place in our pool and a ticket to the Sunday Quarter Finals. Game 3 was a battle between 2 evenly matched teams with speed and tenacity. Our Stars started the scoring in the first before giving up one for a 1-1 tie after the first. A goal by Lambeth in the 2nd put the Stars behind by 1 heading into the 3rd. Less than 3 minutes into the 3rd, a goal from the Stars made it even at 2-2. A push from the Stars late in the game saw goal #3 put in with 23 seconds left to give the Stars the 3-2 win, clinching 1st place in Pool B and game #4 on Sunday vs Collingwood.
Sunday morning's game vs Collingwood was another battle from puck drop but the Stars did not back off. A scoreless 1st period led to a late goal in the 2nd by Collingwood. Behind by 1 heading into the 3rd period, the Stars were determined to fight back. An early goal by the Stars making it 1-1 gave us a boost to be the team that would have puck possession for the majority of the 3rd period. A Collingwood goal put the Stars down 2-1 with 8 minutes left. A continued battle by the Stars right to the ending buzzer, even playing the last 3 minutes with 6 players and the empty net trying to tie it up and send it to overtime. We came up short, just not able to put another goal past Collingwood and our tournament run ended in the Quarter Finals.
A fabulous effort and game play by our Stars in games #1, 3 and 4 is exactly what we need to keep doing as we continue in our league playoffs and begin our OMHA playdowns.
It certainly was a successful and fun tournament for the Twin Centre Stars. Keep up the hard work Stars, the coaches and parents are proud of your accomplishments this season and look forward to the continued exciting hockey and the playoff run.
GO STARS GO!!
Coach Dave