U15 Stars Fall to Caps 3 - 2

In the opening game of the U15 playoff semifinal the Vienna Jr. Capitals defeted the LA Star/Tigers in a closely fought decision 3 - 2. In the best of three playoff series the Stars must now win two straight to advance to the finals.

The opening period started off very promising for the Stars with Philipp Pöschmann scoring at the two minute mark unassisted on a Stars powerplay but on a three on five later in the period the Stars could not escape the Caps pressure and surrendered the equalizer and had to take the 1 - 1 score into the first period break. 

The second period was very even with both teams giving up very few shots but it was the Caps that managed to break the tie and then go up by two before the period ended. The third period started with a Stars powerplay that would lead to the second Stars goal when Florian Baltram scored from Emil Sztatecsny and Max Paczkowski but in the ensuing 19 minutes the Caps would keep the away team off the board and protected thier one goal lead to the final buzzer.

Coaches Comments:

We were not able to pentrate the Caps defense today and did not get enough shots on goal. We did not take advantage of our powerplay opportunities and in the end that made the difference. We were not as sharp as we should have been and you have to credit the Caps who worked extremely hard to break down our offense limiting us to less the 15 shots. It was a tough loss but we have another chance tomorrow to get even in the second game of the best of three series. Sometimes you have to win the hard way and we will have to find a way to get more shots and traffic on net tomorrow if we are to be succesful. We hope to have  Pauli Sztatecsny and Simon Wolf back in the line-up tomorrow but have lost Tobias Lindmaier (broken collar bone) for the remainder of the season and wish him a speedy recorvery. Game time tomorrow is 17:50  and promises to be another nailbiter.

Caps 3 , Stars 2 (1 - 1, 2 - 0, 0 - 1)