The L.A. Stars hosted the very first Centrope Cup this past weekend, with teams participating from Nuremburg, Germany; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Zagreb, Croatia; Skalica, Slovakia; and the host L.A. Stars.  Over the two days each team played four games, with the tournament Champion crowned based on the results of the games.

The Stars opened the tournament with Nuremburg on Saturday afternoon. With their competition being older and larger, it was a great test for the Stars, and they took a period to feel their way into the game. The problem was, Nuremburg did not! After the first period, the Stars had surrendered three goals and were looking up at the big German squad.  The second period settled the team down, and the boys got to playing their style. Fabio Kläy opened the Stars’ scoring on the powerplay (Weber, Bowerman), and in the third period, Kläy again found mesh on the powerplay (Weber, Krammer) to bring the Stars to within one. With the goalie pulled and pressure on the German squad, the Stars tried desperately to even the score, but to no avail. The final: Nuremburg 3, Stars 2.

The second match of the day saw the hometown boys play against Zagreb, Croatia. The Stars opened the scoring in the first as Dylan Weber (Kläy) notched his first of the tournament. The Croatian squad then drew even early in the second on the powerplay, before taking the lead late in the second. Fabio Kläy (Houben) tied the game early in the third, but the young Stars could not seem to beat the Croatian netminder as the game ended, despite carrying the play. Johann Bauer shook off a nervous first period to be totally in control the rest of the way, giving the Stars all that they would need, but the offense was just too shallow on the day. The game ended in a 2-2 draw.

Sunday’s first match was the host team against a very strong Skalica, Slovakia squad. For the first period, the teams played relatively even, with the only blemish on Stars netminder Bryce Fink being a powerplay goal the Slovaks mustered just past the 10 minute mark. Ending the period down by one, the Stars were confident, but in the second, the Slovakian team stepped on the gas, and the young Lower Austrian squad could not contain the speed of their eastern counterparts.  Scoring 4 more goals in the second, the Slovaks held a commanding 5 goal lead heading into the third.  The Stars refused to quit, however, and Weber got the home team on the board with another powerplay marker early in the third, and hope was rekindled. The next shift, however, the faceoff saw two Slovakian forwards burst through their check, and bury a two-on-one to regain a five goal lead they would never relinquish.  The final was 6-1 for Skalica.

The last tournament game pitted the Stars against a very strong, mature Olimpija squad from Slovenia. The first period started much in the same fashion as the game against Skalica, with the only blemish for netminder Johann Bauer being a powerplay goal for the Slovenians. Playing hard was not even in question, as the L.A. squad pushed for an equalizer, but couldn’t manage. Going into the second period, it seemed that the speed of the HC Olympian players was again unable to be matched by the Stars, and they conceded two more goals, both on even strength. The third period was the same, as the Stars failed to break the shut-out for the Olympian netminder, and the final buzzer saw a 5-0 win for Olympia give them the overall Championship.

As for the hometown Stars, their coach was fairly pleased with the result. “I think that fourth place is quite respectable, given the level of competition of our opponents. The games were close for the most part, we battled, and we competed. Our lack of overall strength and speed against the older guys showed at times, and we failed to capitalize in a few key situations that may have given us a couple of wins. We have not seen that level of constant competition at all this season, so it was great. Those are the types of games you have to have to push your players.”