U15 Stars/Tigers Humble Vienna Ice Lions 7 – 1

In a Sunday afternoon game in St. Pölten the U15 Star/Tiger combo soundly defeated a very weak Vienna squad but the game itself proved less than flattering for both teams.' It took almost fifteen minutes before the home team could get on the scoreboard and should have been able to do much more damage but poor puck management kept the game close in what should have been a runaway. Converted forward Emil Sztatecsny finally opened the scoring on a pass from Marcel Hack and a very ugly period of hockey ended 1 – 0. After the break it looked like coaches intermission message paid off when Paul Koudelka scored in the opening minute from Alexander Houben and Paul Sztatecsny but Vienna shocked the home team just 24 seconds later to get back to within one. A comedy of poor decisions and even worse passing dominated the period until Hack put a nice two on one play from Paul Hochman behind the WEV goalie to take a 3 – 1 lead into the final period. In the final frame the Stars took complete control of the game and showed just how much better they could be and outshooting the travelers 22 – 1 and scoring four unanswered goals to win 7 – 1. Marcel Brichta scored unassisted on a nice solo effort, followed by a nice two way passing play from Koudelka to Tobias Lindmaier . Emil Sztatecsny’s second of the night was followed by defenseman Max Paczkowski’s first when he converted a nice Sztactecsny pass to finish off the scoring. Coaches comments: We all know what happens when you take your opponent too lightly and forget that you still have to skate, pass, shoot and bear down on your opportunities. We were unprepared to do what it takes to score goals, and making very poor decisions with the puck in times when there is no pressure is a sure sign that players still have a very lot to learn about this game. Bad habits are hard to break and we have to work hard to teach some of our guys that moving the puck is the hardest skill of all. Playing weaker teams can be very difficult and when you slow your play to that of your opponents instead of quicker puck movement, this is the result you get. The tendency in these types of games is to hold on to the puck too long (because you can) or until you get in spots where you can’t make a play, instead of just making the simple pass when it is available. But even a poor game like this can be a valuable lesson if you learn from it and those who move on will.