Stars (A) Break Even in Monarchs Tourney
The Stars traveled to New Hampshire this past weekend to participate in the Monarchs Tourney and played the Green Mountain Glades, the Valley Warriors, and the Capital District Selects.
In their first game of the tourney the Stars tied the Green Mountain Glades, 6-6. The Stars fell behind early as the Glades Zachary Vit scored at the :15 mark. They increased their lead to 2-0 on a goal from Preston Dekker at 8:51. Three minutes later the Stars finally got on the board with Ryan Farnan’s goal. Mike Montagna tied the game 2-2 with his tally at 13:31. But 19 seconds later the Glades regained the lead with Dan Evarts goal. The Stars again tied the game quickly at 14:52 with a goal from Joe Wilson. The Stars took their first lead of the game, 4-3, late in the first half on another goal from Wilson. Green Mountain then tied the game at 4-4 just before the first half ended. In the second half the Stars took the lead again on Matt Wilson’s goal at 2:30. This back and forth game was tied again on a goal from the Glades Pete Massar at 3:59. Joe Wilson scored his third goal giving him a hat trick for the game at 4:37 as the Stars lead 6-5. Dan Evarts got his second goal for the Glades to close out the scoring giving the teams a hard fought 6-6 tie.
The second day of the tourney (Saturday) had the Stars looking at a rough day ahead as they were the only team scheduled to play two games in one day. In the morning game against Valley the Stars squeaked by with a 5-4 overtime victory. The Stars built up an early 2-0 lead with goals from Josh LaRose and Joe Wilson in the first 12 minutes of the game. Valley then took a commanding 4-2 lead scoring four unanswered goals. But just before the first half ended Wilson scored his second goal and the Stars only trailed by one at the end of the first half. Both teams battled hard in the second half and then at the 14:47 the Stars Mike Montagna tied the game at 4-4 and forced the game into overtime, the second consecutive overtime game for the Stars. In overtime Joe Wilson tallied his third goal at :31 giving the Stars the come from behind victory.
In the nightcap the Stars fell to the Capital District Selects, 4-2. Each team traded a goal in the first half with Brian Roller getting the Stars goal. The Selects built up a two goal lead on goals from Whitney Curtin and Zach Student mid-way in the second. The Stars continued to battle to cut the Selects lead and with just 1:39 left in the game Rob Morton scored to make the score 3-2. With just over a minute remaining the Stars pulled goaltender Anthony Cadieux to add the extra attacker but the Selects Mike Henrici scored an empty net goal making the final 4-2.
For the tourney the Stars went 1-1-1 and are tied for third place in the Northern Division with Green Mountain. Joe Wilson had an outstanding tournament getting two hat tricks along with 4 assists giving him a 10 point weekend.The Stars head to Bridgewater this weekend to play the Bandits.
Stars (B) Drop Two Against Tri-State
Saturday in the Stars home opener the first place Tri-States Selects defeated the Syracuse Stars (B) team, 6-1. The Stars kept pace with the Selects for at least half the game until Ben Pulley scored at the 12:00 minute mark of the 2nd period. Tri-State then increased their lead to 2-0 about a minute later on a goal from Tom McDaniel. The Selects then built their lead to 5-0 before the Stars got on the board from an unassisted goal from Dan DelZoppo.
On Sunday the Tri-States Selects scored 4 goals in the first period en route to a 10-4 victory over the Stars. The Stars started to make a comeback in the second period on a short-handed goal from Jared Lehman at 7:43. A little over a minute later the Stars' James Cathers cut further into the Selects lead to make the score 4-2. The Selects increased the lead to 5-2 mid-way in period before the Stars' Zach O'Mara made the score 5-3. Tri-State then put the game out of reach scoring 5 unanswered goals before Cathers scored the final tally of the game.
With the weekend sweep the Selects increased their record to 11-1-0 and have 7 of their players in the league’s top 10 in scoring and their three goaltenders are also in the top ten. This weekend the Stars travel to New Hampshire for the Monarchs Showcase and play the host Monarchs and the Salem Ice Dogs.
