Lesson 1: LA Stars Jr. Varsity vs Innsbruck

At first it looked like there would be no game at all because of a large hole at the one end of the ice. Luckily we have the best Eismeister in the league and after 20 minutes of repairs we were ready for the faceoff.

Without Max Paczkowski, Patrick Dieber, and Christoph Kitzenegger who were in Linz helping the U15 Team, and missing Florian Baltram who had his appendix removed,  the boys came out to a slow start. It was 3-0 for Innsbruck before the wake up call came in. A first period power play saw some great passing as Eduard Kusnetsov and Vadim Berezhnoy combined to set up Daniil Ovchinnikov for the first goal of the season.. 2 minutes later Mathieu Flamand came out of the penalty box to steal a puck and send Cedric Irhuesogie in on a breakaway which he buried to make it a 2:3 game after the first period.

That would be as close as the Stars would get. National Player Mario Huber was a standout for Innsbruck scoring 5 times and adding 4 helpers. The Jr. Varsity Stars showed determination right until the end of game, never backing down from the much bigger opponents and playing with huge hearts. However 89 minutes in penalties is a little much and makes it really hard to win. The motivation was there, the checks were finished and a lesson was learned.

Lesson 1: It's almost impossible to win a game without discipline, motivation is not enough.

Jr. Varsity Stars – HC Innsbruck 2:12 (2:3, 0:4, 0:5) PIM: 89:28