Select 7 Stars Earn Thrilling Victory Over Belle River Jr. Canadiens – Sunday January 22, 2012
The Select 7 Stars picked up right where they left off last weekend with a thrilling 5-4 victory over a great team in the Belle River Jr. Canadiens. The Stars scored the first 4 goals of the game and the last goal of the game to come away with a hard fought victory.
The Stars got another great defensive effort from Alexandra Seagris, Layne Sinasac, Kieran Thrasher, Cameron Sinasac, Gavin Meloche, Andrew Digiovanni and all forwards as well, along with outstanding goal tending from Jayden Duchesne and Brock Boyko.
The opening two minutes of the first period saw Duchesne make 2 nice saves where he smartly covered the puck after to get a stop in play. Cameron Sinasac also made a fine defensive play just 1:08 into the first to stop a sure scoring chance. The play then turned down to the other end of the ice where Rees Kozar blasted a shot from the right wing that hit the cross bar and stayed out of the net. Kieran Thrasher then made a nice defensive stop on a one on one play to prevent a sure scoring chance. At 5:05, Duchesne came up with another fine save on a shot from the right wing that he calmly deflected off into the left corner. At 5:57, Jake Orchard came within inches of giving the Stars the opening goal but his wrist shot just missed the left side of the net. But the Stars would strike soon enough as Sebastien Tronchin, this week’s Hard Hat Award” winner, corralled the puck near the left face-off circle and made his way to the net and buried a wrist shot into the left side of the net giving the Stars a 1-0 lead. Colin Cote almost made it 2-0 at 9:20 as the Stars continued to apply a lot of pressure in the Canadiens zone. Cote, after a nice pass from Tronchin and strong play by Hayden Bondy, just missed the left side of the net on a nice wrist shot from the slot. 33 seconds later, Drake McGowan let a nice wrist shot go from the right wing but was unable to sneak it by.
The opening two minutes of the second period, much like the first, saw Jayden Duchesne make 2 nice saves to keep the Canadiens off the score board. These 2 saves seamed to fire up the Stars as they carried the play for the next 6 minutes of the game. At 2:20, Rees Kozar, after a great play by Drew Booker to stay on-side, came streaking down the centre of the ice a got a nice wrist shot off from the slot that narrowly missed the net. Then as Cameron Sinasac and Gavin Meloche teamed up for a fine defensive play to quickly stop the Canadiens from getting a scoring chance, Sebastien Tronchin accepted a feed from Sinasac, who made a great decision to pinch in on the play, and buried the puck for his second goal of the game, making it 2-0 Stars. After the ensuing face-off, the Canadiens brought the play into the Star’s zone, but the fine defensive skills of Layne Sinasac quickly turned the play back in the Star’s favour as she stopped a hard shot from the point, found a lane and cleared the puck out of the zone. Then at 6:12, Carson Allen, with precision accuracy, slid the puck past the Canadiens net minder and tucked it just inside the left post giving the Stars a 3-0 lead. This goal by Allen was made possible by the strong efforts of Drew Booker, Rees Kozar and a great play at the blue line by Andrew Digiovanni. Just 1:12 later, Tronchin completed his hat trick with a beautiful move at his own blue line when he banked the puck high off the boards to get past the Canadien’s defender and then roofed a wrist shot from the right wing, making it 4-0 Stars at 7:24.
The Canadiens would come storming back though. Brock Boyko who made a nice save at 7:38 on a hard shot from the left wing, wasn’t as fortunate at 8:14 when the Canadiens were able to squeak one between the post and his outstretched right pad cutting the lead to 4-1. Again, Boyko made another fine save at 8:40 on a shot from the left wing, but the Canadiens kept pressing and were able to get the puck to the front of the net and banged the puck past Boyko at 9:10 making it 4-2 Stars.
With the Stars hanging on to a 4-2 lead, the first 3 minutes of the 3rd period saw a lot of back and forth play until 3:05 when a puck from behind the Star’s net made its’ way to the open side where a crashing Canadien’s forward banged in the puck to cut the lead to just 1 goal. The Canadien’s would complete their comeback with a nice goal from the slot at 6:33, tying the game up at 4-4.
But instead of sitting back and letting the Canadiens dictate the play, the Stars decided to pick up their game and take control. Sebastien Tronchin came within inches of putting the Stars back on top as his wrist shot from the right wing went just over the cross bar at 7:05. At 8:14, Noah Duggan’s wrist shot from the left wing just missed the short side of the net. But then at 8:57, Drew Booker, on a back hand shot from the left face-off circle, snuck one past the Canadien’s net minder to make it 5-4 Stars. This ended up being the game winning goal, as the fine defensive play by the Stars in the last 2 minutes of the game, didn’t allow the Canadiens a shot on goal even with the net empty and the extra attacker on the ice.
Both teams deserve a lot of credit for today’s game as the Stars came out flying and the Canadiens didn’t give up when they were down 4-0. And in the end, the great play and strong effort of the Stars paid off as they emerged victorious.
Congratulations to both teams.
This week’s feature players are Rees Kozar and Drake McGowan
Rees is a one man wrecking crew. His size, strength and skill make him a threat each and every time he is out on the ice. Keep up the great work Rees.
Drake McGowan is a man on a mission. Drake has taken his game to a higher level as of late. He is skating with tremendous speed, handling the puck extremely well and is being much more aggressive with and without the puck at both ends of the ice. Keep it going Drake.
Name – Rees Kozar
Shoots – Right
Favorite Team – Montreal Canadiens
Favorite Player – Mike Cammalleri
Future Ambition – NHL
Favorite Food – Tootsie Rolls
What he likes best about hockey – Scoring goals
Favorite part of today’s game – Getting an assist
Name – Drake McGowan
Shoots – Right
Favorite Team – Detroit Red Wings
Favorite Player – Justin Abdelkader
Future Ambition – NHL
Favorite Food – Hotdogs
What he likes best about hockey – Scoring goals
Favorite part of today’s game – Getting the win
