Mar 19, 2014 | mholzel | 1189 views
Midget Major Stars hold 3-1 point advantage over Knights
Special to the RTT
Do you remember that song by Meatloaf called “Two out of three ain’t bad?” The midget major Stars have taken down two of three mottos on the back of their warm up gear. Coach Glen Holden’s vision is as powerful as it was last September when all the players were handed a warm up shirt and on the back, in silver letters, it the logo that Holden created. The six inspiring words simply said “Dream it. Believe it. Achieve it.” As the season progressed and the systems were starting to fall into place, the dreams of better things to come were actually coming true.
Now that the Stars had an opening game 1-1 tie and a commanding 5-2 win in Game 2 over the Ajax Knights in the OMHA finals, all 18 skaters believe they can achieve their dream that was given to them by Coach Holden. Goalie Daniel Tonietto started Game 1 last Saturday night and held the Knights off the scoreboard in the opening period but in the second, Tonietto sustained a setback and removed himself for precautionary reasons and Thomas Demarco now was in charge of the crease. After an icing deep in the Knights’ zone with only five seconds remaining in the second, a faceoff win by Colin Leardi pushed the puck to towering Zak Parlette and his shot trickled through the five-hole to put the hometown Stars up 1-0.However, the Stars were down a pair of men in the sin bin and the Knights cashed in a powerplay and that would be all the scoring in the game as the teams had to settle for a 1-1 tie. In Game 2 on Sunday, the number one team in Ontario came ready to play. With a great crowd on hand, the Stars gave their fans a lot of chances to cheer as they built a 4-0 lead after two periods and cruised to a confidence building 5-2 win. It could possibly be their last home game for nine players in their Stars’ career.It took only four minutes for the Stars to strike as Robbie Lavoie’s drop pass was gobbled up by Leardi. Leardi’s shot was denied but Ryan Holzel’s shot on the rebound got the cheering section going. The Stars doubled their lead as, once again, Holzel’s drop pass to Leardi and then a pass to the blade of Lavoie saw Lavoie put home a quiet little redirect from just outside the blue paint for a 2-0 Stars lead. In the middle frame with the Stars up a man, it was Leardi picking up his third helper of the game as he slid the puck to Zak Fritsch and his pass over to point man Dean Patterson ended up with Patterson’s blast from the blue line going unnoticed by the Knights’ netminder for a 3-0 lead. With under a minute to go in the second, Stars D-men Parlette and Patterson sent a streaking Anthony Cristofaro down the wing and his 20-foot rocket found the top balcony as the Stars headed into the Zamboni break up 4-0. Halfway through the last period, hard-working Cory Burns intercepted a clearing pass and he went top corner for an unassisted tally of his own.The Knights still had some life left as they cashed in a pair of late goals but the Stars were now up three points to one in the race to six.After the Game 2 victory, assistant coach Kyle Burns said “I think our lines are playing much better and our defense is so strong. That’s got to be the difference between these teams. Ajax deserves to be in the finals and I think our defense will be the key in trying to scratch out just two more wins. ”The Stars now travel to Ajax this weekend for games Saturday and Sunday. As the song goes, two out of three ain’t bad so why not go for three?