Dec 21, 2010 | erorseth | 372 views
97 STAR'S celebrate Christmas with a win !!
The Bantam Minor 97's started their Christmas celebrations early with a convincing win over Tecumseh 5-1 tonight! (cont'd)
The Bantam Minor 97's hosted Tecumseh Eagles at Amherstburg Arena this evening to wrap up their schedule in 2010. The showdown was set as both teams struggled lately and everyone was out to get a much needed win! The Star's came out hard, but missing key players Allen (still out on injury), Dennis and Derksen would add to the challenge. The first period found the Stars shorthanded early and included a nice blocked shot by Pardo early on for the team and Werner came up huge when he stoned Tecumseh by stopping a slap shot from ten feet out during the same play! Shortly after Beaudoin would take a hook from a Tecumseh player leading to a Stars powerplay but the game would remain scoreless. As the first period came to a close an Eagles player layed a huge trip on Burns with 3 seconds left setting up the Stars for a powerplay to start the second period. Although the Stars failed to score you could feel the momentum building in their game. The defence led by hard hitting Fritsch and Sparling kept Tecumseh on their heels. Midway through the period Beaudoin and Wismer both assisted with a series of passes to Holden who scored the opening goal at 7:33 to start the scoring. However, the lead would be short lived as the Stars took a penalty and Tecumseh knotted it back up within a minute. As the period wound down Werner once again proved his dominance between the bars with a big glove save to keep the game tied going into the intermission. Heading into the third, it looked like another possible tie between these two teams. But the Stars had other visions in their head as the game progressed. Lenson led the Star's through the neutral zone and deep into Eagle's territory with a couple of near scoring chances. The penalty box was busy after Tecumseh had a player ejected for hitting Holden in the numbers, and then Meloche took a huge elbow but brought the Stars another powerplay opportunity. On the powerplay Sparling rang the bar with a huge slapshot that nearly scored, then after a flurry of action around the Eagles net the Stars Damico once again buried the go ahead goal assisted by Holden and Bastien. As Tecumseh struggled they once again found themselves in trouble when another player got ejected for hitting Brush from behind also. This powerplay would pave the way to the Star's insurance goal when Burns and Rorseth assisted by passing the puck around the zone to Pardo who blistered one past the Eagles goalie making the lead 3-1. Tecumseh, with all their options running out, pulled the goalie very early in an attempt to get back in this much needed game. Amherstburg's Holden would play spoiler however when he scored unassisted into the empty net driving the score up to four! The Eagles refused to fold and kept the 6th player out which only lead to the Star's Meloche digging deep into the Tecumseh corners and nearly scoring again. Then as the last seconds counted down Fritsch assisted by putting down a perfect pass to Damico who scored his second of the night and sealed the deal for the Star's with 0:13 remaining. Final Score 5-1 for the 97 STARS
The game proved to be a milestone as it is the last game of 2010 and possibly one of the last in the existing arena. Congratulations to the 97 Star's and their coaching staff, all the best for 2011. GO STARS !!!