The Amherstburg Stars Select 7 travel hockey team churned out another dominating performance on Saturday night when they faced the Storm from Erie North Shore. Not only was the offense firing on all cylinders netting 14 goals, the six pillars of strength on defence behind them played an outstanding game holding the Storm to 2 goals on 7 shots throughout the game.
The starting 5 got things going early again for the Stars. With the puck in the Storm’s end of the rink, a clearing attempt by the Storm was picked off by Alexandra Seagris and dumped back into the left corner to an open Sebastien Tronchin. Tronchin fought through the Storm’s defence and buried his first of the game at 1:29 of the first period.
Drew Booker who dominated the face-off circle all night took the next draw and got the puck over to Noah Duggan. Duggan, with some fancy stick handling, weaved his way through the neutral zone and then broke in down the right wing. With the puck on his forehand, Duggan fired a wrist shot that clanged off the near post at 1:51 of the first. Carson Allen then corralled the loose puck in the left corner and made a great pass to the front of the net, but no one was able to deposit it into the net.
The Storm were finally able to grab the puck from the Stars and raced down the ice. With the Storm on a partial 2 on 1 break, Brock Boyko who was in great position out at the crease line, made a great save for his first stop of the game at 2:29.
After a little bit of back and forth play, the Stars began to take it to the Storm again. Rees Kozar, with the puck seemingly glued to his stick, weaved his way through and around the Storm’s players fired a backhand shot at 3:48 that the Storm net minder had to be sharp on. The puck remained in the Storm’s end for the next while with the Stars peppering the Storm goalie with frozen rubber. Then on what seemed to be a dangerous rush by the Storm, Colin Cote picked up a puck in the neutral zone and raced in on a break-away and buried a beautiful goal at 5:28 making it 2 – 0 Stars.
Unfortunately, the Star’s shut-out streak would soon come to an end. Shortly after Andrew Digiovanni made a strong defensive play to stop one break-away, the Storm were able to gather a loose puck and race down the right wing on another break. Boyko was able to make the save on the initial shot, but with the puck loose at his feet, the Storm forward crashed the net and deposited both Boyko and the puck into the net,cutting the lead to 2 – 1 Stars.
With the puck in the Storm zone again, Gavin Meloche made an awesome play on a clearing attempt to hold the puck in the offensive zone. Meloche dumped the puck into the near corner which then lead to another shot on net for the Stars.
With the Stars holding on to a 2 – 1 lead, Boyko came up with another huge save at 7:35 to prevent the Storm from tying it up. Noah Duggan grabbed the loose puck in the Star’s zone and raced his way down the ice, stick handling through the entire Storm team. With the puck on his forehand, Duggan fired a hard wrist from the right wing and just missed scoring short side. That hard wrist shot from Duggan made its’ way around the boards to a Storm forward who gathered the puck and raced down the left wing. Cameron Sinasac, playing text book defence, raced back and easily stopped the Storm forward before any shot was taken. The Star’s forwards then carried the puck back into the Storm’s end and just missed a goal when Drew Booker made an amazing pass from the corner to the front of the net where Carson Allen and Noah Duggan were waiting. With time winding down in the first, Rees Kozar found himself open between the face-off circles and fired a cannon labelled for the top shelf, but was robbed by the Storm’s net minder who made a great save at 9:50 to keep the score 2 – 1 Stars.
As the second period began, you could see that the hard work of the Stars team in the first was starting to wear down the Storm players. From the face-off, the Stars carried the puck into the Storm’s end. Colin Cote fired a hard wrist shot from the left wing at 0:20 that just missed the far side of the net. Following this, the Stars continued to apply the pressure in the offensive zone, with the defence standing tall at the blue line. Drake McGowan fought his way out of the right corner and made a great pass to the front of the net only to find an open Sebastien Tronchin who buried his second of the game at 1:23 to make it 3 – 1 Stars. Immediately following the next face-off, McGowan battled hard and was able to gather the puck and then raced down the right wing on a break-away. McGowan fired a wrist shot from the wing that just missed the short side at 1:55. With the Stars still maintaining puck possession in the Storm’s end, Kieran Thrasher let a shot go from the right wing that deflected off of the Storm net minder into the right corner. Tronchin, who was an absolute force all night, gathered the puck from the corner and fought his way to the net and scored a beautiful goal on a wrap around shot, completing his first hat trick of the game at 2:53 making it 4 – 1 Stars.
Again, with the Stars carrying the play in the Storm’s zone, Hayden Bondy and Drew Booker made great defensive plays to keep the puck in the zone. Booker then dumped the puck along the boards to keep the play alive. Shortly after this, Rees Kozar who was all over the ice on this night, gathered a loose puck and scored on a shot from the hash marks at 4:12 to make it 5 – 1 Stars.
From the next face-off, a bouncing puck eluded a Star’s forward and was picked up by the Storm. The Storm forward raced down the left wing, but Layne Sinasac was there with a solid defensive effort to prevent a scoring chance.
But the Storm would soon get their second tally of the game at 5:52 of the second when a shot came in from the high slot and found an open Storm forward in front of the net who banged the puck past Boyko to make it 5 – 2 Stars.
After the goal, the Star’s forward line of Booker, Allen and Duggan came back out onto the ice. At 6:36, Duggan unleashed a rocket of a shot that clanged high off the right post. Duggan gathered his own rebound behind the net and passed the puck to Allen who was in the left corner. Carson with a “thread the needle” type pass, hit an open Drew Booker in front of the Storm’s net and he buried a shot along the ice past the Storm’s tender at 7:04 to make it 6 – 2 Stars.
Then at 7:53 of the second period, after Alexandra Seagris, who earned the “Hard Hat Award” as hardest working player, went coast to coast with the puck, Jake Orchard followed up the play while strategically staying on-side, buried the rebound from Seagris’ shot to make it 7 – 2 Stars.
The Storm then carried the puck back into the Star’s end and maintained possession. After a battle for the puck, the Storm forward fired a shot in on the Star’s goalie, but Jayden Duchesne was there to make the great save and cover up the loose puck to get the whistle and stop play at 9:28. The second period came to an end with the Stars still leading 7 – 2.
The third period started with a flurry of shots by the Stars but they couldn’t get one by early on the Storm tender. Tronchin just missed netting his fourth of the game on a break away just 35 seconds in. Carson Allen then made another great pass to the goal mouth at 1:29 with Duggan and Booker on the door step.
With the puck turned back towards the Star’s end, Andrew Digiovanni made a great defensive play by hustling back to stop the Storm forward from getting a shot on a break away at 3:52. Duchesne then made a beautiful sprawling save at 4:28 on a back hand shot from the Storm’s forward deflecting the puck to the side of the net where a lurking Drake McGowan awaited. McGowan gathered the loose puck and made a beautiful pass to Sebastien Tronchin who streaked in on a break away and blasted a shot that deflected off of the Storm net minder and ended up top shelf in the net at 4:44 making it 8 – 2 Stars.
Right off the next face off, Hayden Bondy made another great defensive play to strip the puck from the Storm forward. Kieran Thrasher gathered the loose puck, raced in on a break away and fired a forehand shot past the sprawling Storm tender at 4:54 to make it 9 – 2 Stars.
Then, with the puck in the Star’s end of the ice, Jayden Duchesne forced an off-balance Storm forward to miss far side by taking away the entire bottom portion of the net with his pads spread wide.
The next play started with a face off down in the Storm’s end. Drew Booker took the draw and easily won it. Booker, Allen and Duggan then cycled the puck around in the Storm’s end before Allen finally put the puck in the back of the net at 9:30 of the third, making it 10 – 2 Stars.
Unfortunately for the Storm, The Star’s coach decided to allow the extremely dangerous Sebastien Tronchin back out onto the ice. Tronchin went into complete domination mode netting his 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th goals of the game in the final 4 minutes making the final score 14 – 2 Stars.
This brings us to our feature player, Hayden Bondy. Hayden was an absolute force to be reckoned with on this night making numerous outstanding defensive plays and also clanged one shot off the post, coming close to his first goal. Keep up the great work Hayden.
Name – Hayden Bondy
Shoots – Left
Favorite team – Detroit Red Wings
Favorite player – Maurice (Rocket) Richard
Future ambition – Hockey Player
Favorite food – Chicken
What he likes best about hockey – Scoring goals
Favorite part of today’s game – The great passes
