Stars End League Play with Split
The Prep Stars ended their first season in the Austrian National U-20 league with a split in their last two games, earning a well-deserved 4-2 win vs. Graz, and then suffering a 2-1 setback to Innsbruck on the road to bring regular season play in the Bundesliga to a close.
On Saturday, the Stars host Graz in a game that had play-off implications: should the Steiermark team win they would have moved into a three-way tie for first place overall, while a loss would leave them in third. The game was hard-hitting, fast-paced and intense, but the Stars were amped up and ready for the push.
Marco Richter opened the scoring for the home team late in the first period, banging home a rebound off of a Stefan Hrdina point shot at the 15:16 mark. After the period break, the Stars continued to fire on all cylinders, as just over six minutes into the second period Daniel Leisser buried his 12th of the season, with assists going to Hrdina and Kläy. Graz responded just over four minutes later on the powerplay. With a Stars’ defender in the box, Graz beat Stars’ goaltender Sandro Aeschlimann to close the gap to within one, which was how the teams entered the dressing room after forty minutes. The final frame was action-packed, as the Stars gave up the tying goal at the 46:48 mark of the third, before Keegan Evangelista drove hard to the net and benefited on the goal-line scramble, banging home a loose puck. Hrdina also picked up his third assist of the game on the play. The final dagger for the Stars was Richter’s second of the game, assisted by Jon Flamand, just three minutes after Evangelista’s goal, and the Stars skated away with a solid 4-2 win.
Prep Stars 4 vs. Graz 2 (1:0; 1:1; 2:1)
On Sunday, the Stars headed west to take on the Innsbruck Sharks in the last game of the regular season for the Stars. After two close games (4-4 tie and 5-2 loss) the Stars were hoping to roll in to Innsbruck and roll out with two points, but the Sharks thought otherwise. Despite the solid effort of goaltender Johann Bauer, the Stars could only muster one goal, and young Lower Austrian squad was again on the wrong end of the 2-1 score.
Innsbruck opened the scoring on a defensive zone break-down, as a miscue between the Stars centreman and defenseman ended up in the back of the net. Stars captain Fabio Kläy drew the road-team even picking up a loose puck in the slot and wristing a top-shelf shot past the Sharks goalie just seconds before the period end. The 1-1 tie stood for over thirty minutes, until the Sharks capitalized on a defensive zone turnover. The Stars pulled Bauer but didn’t manage a shot, as the Sharks held on to the 2-1 win.
Prep Stars 1 vs. Innsbruck 2 (1:1; 0:0; 0:1)
