LA Jr Varsity Edge WEV

October 15, 2011 - It was a must win game for the Jr. Varsity on this Sunny Saturday afternoon. With only 13 players in their line up, the WEV were highly motivated to get their revenge on the Stars after losing 5-2 two weeks ago in St Poelten. The WEV had the much better start surprising the Stars with constant pressure. At 3:07 Winterhalter would put one over Dieber’s shoulder to give WEV the lead which they would take into the first intermission. The second period was much the same, although the Stars would add a lot more pressure, most of the shots were harmless with no net pressure to follow up. WEV goalie Laura Kastner was outstanding in net frustrating the Stars for the first 40 minutes.
2-2 after two periods and it was still anybodys game.

In the third period we saw a completely different Stars team, the puck was moving and the guys were going to the net for the rebound. Almost the entire third period was played in the WEV zone. Max Paczkowki and Christoph Kitzenegger were brought up to forward and joined by Sebastian Huber. This would be the line to get the ball rolling for the Stars. Although they wouldn’t score a goal, it was their shift with 30 second constant net pressure and hits that got the bench on their feet. From that shift on we rolled and played as a team. WEV would pull their goalie and score with 30 seconds left in the game for some added suspense but the Stars would climb back into the busses with a 5-4 victory.

Goal Scorers for the Stars: Cedric Irhuesogie, Vladimir Rodnov, Garrit Blume, Eduard Kusnetsov, Hugo Jansens.

WEV:LA2 4:5 (1:0,1:2,2:3) PIM 10:42

Coach Streu comments on the game - “I know how hard it is to play against a team you should beat, you often fall into the trap of dropping to the other teams level and trying to do much on your own, and that is what happened tonight. Although we focused all week on our game and playing our style, these sort of games still happen even at the Pro level. What I liked about our team is we were able to come together and put together a third period playing as a team and the boys realized how easy it is when we work together. It was not a pretty game to watch, some individuals learned some lessons about discipline and had to pay the price with ice time. Everybody is here to get better and they have to realize they have to take advantage of every ice time they get, no matter if it’s practice or a game. Tonight we wasted 40 minutes where we could have been improving on our game. They did enough to get the win, but that is the habit I would like to break, I want them giving everythintg they got every game and even if we lose doing this, that’s fine with me.”