U15 Stars Start 2012 with Big Win in Linz
The U15 Stars took to the road Friday afternoon in Linz and came away with thier first win in of the playoff qualification round 5 - 4. It would be the Stars who dominated early in every aspect and scored at the 8 minute mark when defenceman Simon Wolf picked up a pass in his own zone from his defence partner Emil Sztatecsny and skated the whole length of the ice uncontested and fired a nice wrister from the right faceoff dot passed the Linz netminder. The Stars were in complete control in the first period and only some stellar work from the Linz netminder and defence core kept the stars from adding ot the lead.
In an action packed second period in which the Stars totally outplayed thier opponents it was forward Paul Koudelka finally scoring on a powerplay half way through the frame from Paul Hochmann and Moritz Matzka, and Philipp Pöschmann from Florian Baltram and Paul Sztatecsny putting the stars up by three. The flood gates oppened and just four minutes later it was Baltrams turn to take a Pöschmann feed and bury it to give the Stars a 4 - 0 (wolf assisting). And only a minute later Thomas Zitz roofed a beauty from the slot from linemate Sebi Habernig and D-man Jan Blüml to give his team what seemed to be an insurmountable 5 - 0 lead heading into the third.
The final frame started with Linz capitalizing on the powerplay and just 18 seconds in when a hard point shot beat Prosenz high to the glove side. When a bad bounce off of a Stars d-man went into thier own net just two 38 seconds later things started to cool down in a hurry. Linz grabbed the momentum and with a shortened bench, now started thinking comeback. Sämi Prosenz who inherited the 5 - 0 lead mid way through the second from a flawless Maxi Wehran was now in net for the Stars and getting very little support from his teammates who were still thinking offense instead of focusing on the defensive side of the puck. Goals three and four for the Black Wings of Linz came about when the Stars were not able to control the Linz duo of Houdum and Haas who were left alone in front to often and able to get into scoring position with Haas making no mistake and gwetting his team back to within one. The last three minutes were as tense as they get with Linz looking to tie it up and the Stars trying desperately to get an insurance marker when an unattended Linz forward grabbed a breakaway pass at center and walked in all alone on Prosenz. The Stars netminder responed with a great leg save and although the Black Wings tried everything including pulling their goalie for a sixth attacker it would be the Stars who came up big when it counted to survive the onslaught and hold on to take the game.
Coaches Comments:
Two great periods followed by a very casual third is the best way to describe this game. We had enough chances to score ten goals and coast home easily and that is what we need to be able to do if we want to avoid the difficulties we faced in the last frame. I hope we learned a valuable lesson here today and that is, never to forget the old cliche, "its not over until its over". We were very happy with the first two periods though but the loss of concentration and defensive involvment, compounded by some bad breaks allowed Linz to get close. I thought we were the better team for 90 percent of the game but the better team does not always win but the smarter team usually does. We were definitely not the smarter team in the third period. Coach Wehrhan was clear before the game that we are the better team and have to play that way. We did that for most of the game and I was especially pleased with the goaltending of both Wehran Jr. and Prosenz who were both strong. The boys get a day off before playing thier arch rivals the Vienna Capitals on Sunday in Vienna and will hopefully be able to play a complete sixty minute game this time round. See you there!
Final Score, 5 - 4 (1 - 0, 4 - 0, 0 - 4)
