Stars Come Close in Hard Fought Battle against Tecumseh –Saturday January 7, 2012, News, Select 7, Travel Teams, 2011-2012 (Amherstburg Minor Hockey Association)

This game got off to a fairly quick start as Brock Boyko made his first save at 1:19 of the first period and was quick to cover the rebound to get a whistle.  Just 27 seconds later, Boyko came up with another nice save on the initial shot from a Tecumseh forward and then again on the first rebound but was unable to stop the Eagles on their third attempt as the puck was poked under his right pad.  But just 1:12 later, Colin Cote scored a nice goal with his partner in crime, Sebastien Tronchin, right beside him as both of them crashed the crease to bang in the loose puck to tie the game at 1-1.  Carson Allen, this week’s “Hard Hat” award winner, came out onto the ice for the next shift and with some nice stick handling and quick foot work was able to get off 2 nice shots within 30 seconds of each other.  As the Eagles started to break out of their zone with the puck, Gavin Meloche made a great defensive play to stop a sure scoring chance by the forward streaking down the right wing.  Then at 4:53, Brock Boyko came up with another key save and quickly jumped on the puck to prevent any second chance scoring.  At 5:41 of the first, Noah Duggan came within inches of putting the Stars on top as he fired a nice wrist shot from the right wing that just missed.  Then just 14 seconds later at 5:55, a Tecumseh forward was able to get in on a breakaway and beat Boyko on a nice shot from the slot giving the Eagles a 2-1 lead.  That lead did not last long as the combination of Tronchin and Cote were back on the ice and doing a great job on the fore check.  Tronchin stationed himself out front as Cote continued to battle for the puck behind the net.  Cote eventually won the battle and passed the puck out front to Tronchin who buried it into the back of the Eagles net.  The Eagles would get one more goal before the end of the period to take a 3-2 lead into the second.

The second period featured a lot of back and forth play to start.  The Stars got their first 2 shots on net from Rees Kozar at 2:53 and Noah Duggan at 3:19 before Kieran Thrasher finally got the Stars back to even with a beautiful breakaway goal at 6:18.  The next shot on net came from Rees Kozar at the 12:26 mark when he let a nice wrist shot go from the right wing.  At the 13:34 mark, Carson Allen who battled for the puck along the right boards, fed a pass out to a well positioned Drake McGowan who just missed re-directing the pass into the Eagles net.  Then with just 5 seconds left in the period, Jayden Duchesne came up with a beautiful save to keep the score tied at 3-3.

The second period also featured a lot of fine defensive displays by Layne Sinasac, Cameron Sinasac, Kieran Thrasher, Andrew Digiovanni, Alexandra Seagris, Gavin Meloche and several of the Star’s forwards as they held the Eagles to just 2 shots on net.

The third period started with the Stars on the penalty kill and both Jake Orchard and Jayden Duchesne came up huge.  Jake showed nothing but hustle and hard work as he battled for the puck on several occasions and was able to clear the puck from the zone.  Duchesne was equal to the task as he came up with a huge save at 0:58 to rob the Eagles of a sure goal.  Just after the Stars finished killing off the penalty, Carson Allen found himself and Drake McGowan in a familiar situation as Allen dug the puck out of the corner and fed a pass to McGowan in front of the net who made a great attempt to get his stick on the puck to re-direct it towards the goal, but the puck slid just wide.  Duchesne came up with another nice save and a great cover-up at 3:12 to get a stop in play as the Eagles were pressing in the Star’s zone.  On the ensuing face off, the combination of Drew Booker, Noah Duggan and Jake Orchard broke out of their own end with a few nice passes and had a great scoring chance as the puck went right through the crease of the Eagles net minder.  Unfortunately, the Stars were not able to cash in on their chances and with time winding down, a Tecumseh forward with a shot from the right slot was able to flip the puck over a well positioned Jayden Duchesne for the go ahead and game winning goal.

Hayden Bondy made his debut as a forward in this game and made his presence known on many occasions with his great speed and puck handling ability.

This week’s feature player is Andrew Digiovanni.  Andrew is a fantastic player who gets faster, stronger and better every week.  Andrew’s great speed are a huge asset to the team as he is able to track down opposing players which has resulted in many dangerous scoring chances being eliminated.