One day after the huge win in Villach the U15 Stars faced Innsbruck at home. Building on the momentum and energy from the night before the Stars were untouchable. Andy Wagner was added to the lineup and did a great job of faceoffs and setting up some nice goals. The Stars would score 13 goals on this day, and out of those 13, 12 were highlight reel goals. The Young Innsbruck Goalie Weissenegger did a great job in his first U15 action, and couldn't be faulted on the goals as the passing game was on today.

Some magnificant combinations and constant net pressure as the Stars impressed shift after shift. Lukas Wilding coming off a strong game yesterday paired up with Daniil Ovchinnikov with their line scoring 4 goals in their first 5 shifts. It was one of those games where everything was working.
It was 6-0 after the first period and that would be the end of great hockey. Once the Stars realized they could not be touched on this day, the speed of the game fell off, although the passing was still spot on, the excitement of the game was missing from both teams.

The third would be the same, both teams going through the motions and not giving 100%. This is always a dangerous situation for a team. Players start trying to do too much, pick up bad habits, stay out on the ice too long, and this is when injuries usually occur. Just as our luck would have it, Emil Sztatecsny would take a shot to the inside ankle, taking him out of the game and to the hospital for further observation. Innsbruck added two goals in the third and Paul Hochmann wrapped up the scoring with a beautiful shorthanded goal. All in all a great weekend for the U15 Stars.

Scorers for the Stars: Baltram(2), Ovchinnikov(2), Jansons(3), Wilding, Zitz, Wagner, Habernig, Sztatecsny, Hochmann.

U15 Stars: HCI 13:2 (6:0,4:0, 3:2)

After the last two less than optimistic outings the U15Star/Tiger combo felt they would right the ship and take a couple of points from KAC in Klagenfurt on Saturday afternoon. They would be in for a rude awakening and before tem minute mark of the first period they were down 0 - 3.  Some very sloppy play in thier own zone with weak passes and poor one on on play lead to the disasterous start. Patrick Dieber put his team on the baord finally to stop the bleeding at the twelve minute mark and the road team got some of their courage back and played with more determination only to have a bad give away in thier own zone lead to the fourth KAC goal with just one second on the clock.

To add insult to injury poor defensiv zone coverage early in the second lead to yet another KAC score and put the Stars even further behind and by far the worst effort of the season so far was to even get worse when a KAC player was allowed to wander into the slot and put a high shot to the blocker side to give his tema a 6 - 1 lead. The Stars puller there keeper Sämi Prosenz and replaced him with Maxi Wehrhan who played well but had to take another goal from a screened point shot to make it 7 - 1 Klagenfurt. A demoralized group continued to work and to thier credit did not quit! When Patrick Dieber got his second from Philipp Pöschmann and Jan Blüml the Stars at least had some hope and fought hard there rest of the period.

With nothing more to lose except thier pride the young Stars played a different game in the third. Prosenz went back in the net to regain some of his self confidence and when Dieber scored his third in a row on a great solo effort to bring the Stars to within four you could feel the energy come back into the team. Max Paczkowski grabbed a lose pcuk off a Dieber check at the offensive blueline and walked in alone to beat the KAC goalie and gave his team a realistic chance for a comeback now only being down 7 - 4 with six minutzes to go. When Phiipp Pöschmann scored from Dieber (his fifth point of the day) and Paczkowski on the power play just 8 secondes later, it looked like the comeback was within reach.  A turbulent last five minutes saw a different Stars team who were now full of energy and determination and out skated and out work thier opponents from Klagenfurt.  Unfortunately the chances the Stars had were not converted and the game ended 7 - 5 for the home team in what turned out to be a very exciting finish and as so often said in hockey had the Stars played the whole game with this much effort it would have been a different outcome.

Coaches Comments:

A bad first period lead to this defeat and we baisically beat ourselves once more. Terrible defensive zone work coupled with some unfortunate individual mistakes cost us this game. It is never nice to get beat like this and with these young players anything is possible as could be seen at the end of the game. I was happy that Prosenz came back strong after being pulled to shut out KAC in the third and a few of our guys played very well. Patrick Dieber and Moritz Matzka both had very strong games and even when you lose you can win and I though the third period showed us that when you never give up and play for your pride anything can happen. We did come up short, but we will be ready for this team next time out. We have a tough weekend ahead of us in Villach and at home against Innsbruck and it would be nice to continue where we left off in the third period today.

Final Score KAC 7 - Star/Tigers 5    (4 -1, 3 - 1, 0 - 3)

With only 12 skaters and Sami Prosenz between the pipes the U15 Stars travelled to Villach to battle the undefeated VSV. With the school semester coming to an end the last thing these kids wanted to face was another test. But it seemed that the boys did some homework after last weeks loss in Vienna. With every test preparation is the key, with execution that key creates openings, and with desire we take advantage of those openings.

Florian  Baltram opened the scoring on a backhand after blocking a shot and outskating the Villacher. After some great saves by Sami “110” Prosenz, the Stars would add another when Emil Sztatescny and Ali Houben combined  to get Baltram his second on the rebound. 2-0 after the first period and time for a well deserved break and refill those water bottles.

The second period was again Star domination. It’s amazing what you can do when you skate and on this night we skated. Everyone was back checking, and forechecking, and when we had the puck we were moving it and getting pucks to the net. “Go With the Flo” Baltram would complete his natural hat trick and give the Stars a 3-0 lead after two.

The Third period started and you could see the 22 players on Villach had a little more gas in the tank than the 12 Star Players. We were forced to take a couple of penalties but did a great job killing a 3 v 5 and then when everything seemed to be back under control, an unforced turnover led to the first goal against. But when Daniil “ Chinny” Ovchinnikov shelved a rebound to regain the 3 goal lead everyone in the rink knew what team would go home with the points on this night.

Chinny would add another to make the final 5-1. For Villach it was their first loss of the Season and for the Stars not only an impressive win, but a much needed confidence booster for their next game tomorrow against Innsbruck.

COACHES COMMENTS: It was a great game and always a good feeling when you beat the top team in the league. We couldn't have done it without a great team effort and all 13 guys played their hearts out tonight. You don't really want to point out individuals on a night like this when everyone was so good but I must say I was really impressed with Lukas Wilding tonight.  He did a lot of great things on the penalty kill, and of course Sami Prosenz,  he just looked so confident out there, that was the best game I've seen him play, but again hats off to all the boys.

VSV:U15 STARS 1:5 (0:2,0:1,1:2)

After starting the placement round with a win and tie, the U15 Stars were anything but dominant in a 6 - 4 loss to a much harder working Jr. Caps team in Vienna on Friday night. The two teams tied last Sunday with the Stars unable to take advantage of their many chances and again on Friday the problem remained the same. Hugo Jansons on a tight angle shot from Emil Sztatecsny opened the scoring eight minutes in on the powerplay, after a viscious Jr. Caps boarding call put Captain Paul Hochmann out of the game with a bruised neck. The Caps answered on a five on three powerplay late in the period to pull even.

The second period turned out to be the difference with the Caps scoring three in a row to go up 4 - 1 before Florian Baltram from Sebastian Habernig and Daniil Ovchinnikov got his team back to within two with just one second left on the clock. The Caps were the better team by far in the period and derserved to be out front. Poor passing coupled with far too much individual play and some very bad decisions left the Stars wondering just what went wrong.

The third would start with some life for the Stars after the late goal but they were again unable to capitalize on their chances and a bad cross zone pass sent a Caps player in all alone to put his team back up by three. When Baltram scored his second from Jansons and Lukas Wilding a spark of life seemed to come back to the team and it looked like they would turn things around. The Stars began to show how dominant they can be and had several man advantage opportunities but just could not get the put to drop. Moritz Matzka finally scored from Habernig and Thomas Zitz with nine minutes to go to get his team within one and the push was on. The Stars now threw everything they had at the Caps net, but it would be the Caps who would take advantage of one of the few chances they had to add to the lead once more. A furious last five minutes saw the Stars try everything to score but on this night they were not rewarded and had to suffer their first loss of the season to a Caps team who played harder and smarter when it counted and deserved the two points.

Coaches Comments:

It is hard to understand why the team came out flat today but these things happen. We were just not ready to play as was seen in our preperation prior to the on ice warm up and the warm up itself. The hockey gods tend favour the harder working group for the most part and it was the Caps on this night. Again, we reverted to carrying the puck instead of moving it and missed too many chances with poor shot selections and missing the net too often. We made an awful lot of individual mistakes tonight which seemed to be punished every time. We did not clear the puck when we had the chance and lost it on the oppositions blue line instead of getting it deep which really hurt us. Lets hope we can get rid of some of these bad habits we've been displaying of late and back to a better, harder working game with less individual play and more teamwork to put us back on the right track.

Final Score: 4 - 6 (1 - 1), (1 - 3), (2 - 2)