U15 Stars Split Points With Jr. Caps
After a very long weekend with some U15 players playing in thier fourth game in three days is was not going to be easy against a highly motivated Jr. Caps team who were out to avenge an earlier defeat against the U15 LA Star/ Tigers.
The game started out with lots of action with the home team Stars ganing much of the play early. After a nice three way passing play through Patrick Dieber and Thomas Zitz, Lukas Wilding connected on a low shot off the far post to give the Stars the early lead. Then Florian Baltram grabbed a puck in the corner and proceeded to come out front through traffic and found the five hole to give his team a 2 - 0 lead going into the first period break.
A penalty ridden second period saw powerplays for both teams with the pace remaining high and both teams trading chances. It would be the Caps breaking through to get back to within one and putting the pressure back on the home team. The Star/Tigers responed when a Dieber slapshot found the twine to give his team a two goal cushion once more to releive some of the visible tension on the Stars bench. The Caps were by no means slowing down and kept applying pressure on the Stars defence and got their second goal of the game late in the period when an unfortunate sharp angle shot beat a very solid Maxi Wehrhan in net for the Stars to give the road team the momentum going into the third.
A visibly tired UI5 Stars group fought hard but had trouble in thier own zone and gave the Caps far to much room to manouvre which took its toll. Late in the period it was ex Star Sebastian Strepitsch, whos point shot beat Wehrhan low on the short side to tie the game. Both teams tried to hard get the victory but the game would end in a draw with the Stars losing and the Caps winning a point in St.Pölten. The Star - Caps derby remains exciting with every U15 game in the last few seasons coming down to the wire and this trend does not look like it will end soon which is great for the teams and for thier fans.
Coaches Comments: We thought the team worked hard and showed lots of character after the tough weekend of games we had, with many players having to play three to four games including two tough U17 games in three days which is tough at any level. When your tired you will make mistakes and in the end we could not keep the Caps out of our end which cost us a point. We need to play a simpler game especially when we are fatigued but we are a young group and are learning every time out and we hope the guys learned something tonight. We have a tough schedule ahead and need to be better in our own end. We had too much trouble getting out of our zone with speed and forgot to get the puck deep in many instances which would have eased some of the stady pressure we put ourselvs under. This type of competition is great for both teams and it is very important to have to go to the limit and will help us improve as players. It is always tough to come off a 19 - 0 win the game before and switch gears that quick. All in all we are very pleased with the boys development thus far and tight games like these are what we need to get better.
