The U-15 48er Stars started off slowly but showed what they were made of Saturday afternoon in Vienna by defeating a stronger than expected Villacher SV by a score of 6 - 2, to take themselves one step closer to their ultimate goal the Austrian under 15 Championship. It was not what the home team expected and they were caught off guard by a fast skating hard checking group from Corinthia that went out to an early 1 - 0 lead at the 4 minute mark and continued to pressure the Stars throughout the first half of the period. Then on a well executed power play  the 48er Stars got the equalizer on a nice point shot form Stefan Hrdina with assists to Schröder and Krammer. Five minutes later a determined Cedric Irhuesoie not only got the puck away from the Villach defenseman at his own blue line, he then raced down the ice and managed to get off a shot while under pressure from the secon defenseman and banged in his own rebound to give the homeside an unassised 2 - 1 lead goining into the first period break.

Villach pressed for the equalizer early in the second and with the man advantage (Weber in the box)  some poor short handed play by the Stars gave VSV the break they needed and the game was again tied at two. Both teams missed on several good scoring chances and in the penalty filled period niether team was able to gain the advantage until the 33rd minute when a nice give and go lead in a quick one timer from the slot by Philipp Kreuzer off a great pass by Victoria Hummel to put the home side up again. Just two minutes later an even nicer play ended in a Nikolaus Houben score from a clever Fritz Schröder pass gaining some much needed breathing room. Villach continued to counter with some great quick transition chances which were handled flawlessly by the Stars goalie Raphi Ungar.

Going into the third with a 4 - 2 lead the 48er Stars now had to continue to play thier game and protect against the Villach counters that had plagued them throughout the game. They managed to contain Villachs offense the first half of the period and began to slowly take over the game. After Sam Atonitsch banged in another nice passing play from Schröder and Hrdina the Stars settled in to a more conservative mode failing on a number of clear chances to add to the score until Dylan Weber off found the net off a nice goal mouth pass from Niki Kraus and a helper by Philipp Kreuzer. The 48er Stars needed to kill off two late period penalies to maintain their lead, which they did and brought home the win.

In the dressig room a very relieved coach Vorlicek let his team know he was happy with the result but not happy with the many giveaways afforded the opposition in this game. "We worked hard but at times not very smart which lead too many Villach opportunities. We just did not find our game early on and it took some good individual efforts to secure the victory."

Next Saturday the 48er Stars take on HC Innsbruck in Vienna at 16:00 and will need to be better defensively in their quest for the title!

The rematch of last Tuesday night’s U-17 game between the Linz BlackWings and the L.A. Stars turned into a replay. After handing the Linz squad a 4-1 loss on Tuesday, the ‘Wings came with a bigger line-up and a chip on their shoulder, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Bryce Fink, getting the nod again in the net, and the line of Marco Richter, Nikolaus Houben, and Fritz Schröder were too much for the Linz group.

The first period resembled a chaotic practise than well-oiled teams challenging each other. Trading very few scoring chances and committing too many turnovers, the Stars couldn’t generate any offense. After one period, both teams remained scoreless.

The second period saw a lot more offense for the Stars, and a bewildered BlackWings wondering what was happening. As the ‘Wings were focussing so much on other players in the line-up, the Richter-Houben-Schröder line devastated the Wings with speed, puck control and creativity. Houben opened the scoring on a rebound from the slot, spinning and firing a wristed along the ice that beat a screened Linz netminder just six minutes into the period (assists to Fellinger and Richter). Just three minutes later, Schröder somehow squeezed a shot by the Linz goalie from the bottom of the left face-off circle (Richter, Krammer). Just before the end of the frame, Richter finished off a beautiful passing play from Houben and Weber, and the Stars held a 3-0 lead after 40 minutes of play.

The third period was more of the same, as the Star’s continued to press. Houben tallied his second of the game (shorthanded) as an errant clearing pass by the Linz goaltender careened of him, and bounced into the net. Linz tried to mount a comeback, as they tallied on the powerplay with Dylan Weber in the box after the sides became a little more testy. Fellinger (Bowerman, Kläy) scored to restore the four-goal lead, and with just over a minute-and-a-half later, Reinis Skorovs notched his first goal as a Star banging in a rebound (Antonitsch, Fellinger) from the edge of the crease, and the night was complete.

“Our guys worked tremendously hard... it was great. The first period wasn’t the way we wanted to start... not from a score-perspective, but from a ‘pace-of-play’ perspective. We really came out watching more than we were playing, and our desire to be fancy hurt us in that first twenty. I told the guys after the first: we are a meat-and-potatoes team, not a prawns-and-pasta group. We have to keep things simple, and that will be effective,” voiced O’Leary. “We did that in the second and third, and it yielded very positive results.” After the furious pace of the week (four games in 10 days) the Stars get a little rest before their next road-trip west.