Stars in Prague @ Sparta

The Sparta Tournament in beautiful Prague, the LA Stars roster made up of Players from all 3 academy teams arrived 1 hour before game time and filed into dressing room number 5 picked their spots and prepared for the first game of this Elite Tournament.

Facing Chomutov pirati, the third place team from the Czech 1. Division, it was going to be a tough start, but then again there are never any easy games. Gernot Wegerer would get the start and made some key saves early to get himself quickly into the game.

Both teams were flying, short shifts kept the game tempo really high and then off an offensive faceoff, Florian Baltram would win a battle and put the puck in the back of the net to give the Stars a 1-0 lead they would take into the first intermission. After a quick drink and chalk talk, the boys headed out for the second and continued to press. Fritz Schroeder would chip a puck out to a flying Marco Richter who sped off with Nikolaus Houben on a 2 v 1. Houben’s net drive attracted the Defenseman allowing Richter go 1 v 1 on the goalie. His patented move would make the game 2-0. Minutes later the Pirati would get a power play and a shot from the point would be deflected past Wegerer to cut the LA Stars lead to 1. There was no way the Stars were going to let that goal break their determination on this day.

The Stars came out with a very compact third period. Great back pressure with hard skating was the secret to success today and when Chomutov pulled their goalie, Nikolaus Houben would add an empty netter. The game wasn’t over yet with only a few seconds to play Gonzalo Ruiz stole a puck on the forecheck and made a great pass out to Gabor Belenyesi to make the final 4-1 with Stars scoring coming from all 3 different teams…..A great team effort.