The LA Stars ventured off to Fussen Germany for the Annual Fussen Cup for 94 Born Players, and despite missing several players who were unable to attend due to national team commitments, the Stars put on a good show. The players’ systems were shocked with games that were shorter and more condensed, forcing the players to sharpen up their skills and put more pressure on.

The first game of the tournament opened with the Stars facing EV Landsberg of Germany. The Stars came out swinging, and it showed on the scoreboard. Fabio Kläy opened the scoring (Weber, Kummer) in the first. They followed it up with another goal just five minutes later. The hometown team notched their own PP marker before the period expired to cut into the lead, but Marco Richter (Houben, Schröder) restored the two goal lead in the second. Landsberg tallied again, but it was too little, too late.  Final score: 3-2 for the Stars. Johann Bauer picked up the win.

The second match of the day was a highly anticipated match with the Kloten Flyers of Switzerland. Kloten opened the scoring in the first on a powerplay, and scored again in the second while the Stars were held off of the sheet. Bryce Fink picked up the loss, but was great despite. The game lived up to expectations, as it was fast, hard-hitting and exciting.  After day one, the Stars were 1-1 and now found themselves pushing to get into the medal round.

Day two saw the Stars Line up against the Slovakian club HC Most. Stephan Fellinger opened the scoring in the first (unassisted), and Dylan Weber (unassisted) built up the two-goal lead. Most responded with two goals of their own before Dario Kummer, future Star for next season, notched his first for the L.A. club (assisted by Weber and Kläy). Bauer picked up the win.

The second match of the day was MAC Budapest for the Stars, and pressure was on. A win, and the Stars were potentially in the semi-finals: lose, and the Stars were relegated to the consolation round. The Stars came out firing, but it was MAC who got on the board first.  Stephan Fellinger responded (unassisted), drawing the Austrian squad even. Kummer, with his second as a Star, finished off a great three-way passing play (Kläy, Hrdina) on the powerplay. Weber, not to be outdone by his Swiss counterpart, walked off the wall and ripped one past the Hungarian netminder (assisted by Hrdina and Fellinger). MAC struggled to get one past Sandro Aeschlmann, the Swiss netminder joining the Stars next season, but in the third they picked up a 5-3 man-advantage and managed to squeeze one through.  The final score saw the Stars pick up the win, but all celebrations were nullified by the fact that the Stars would have to wait and see if Kloten could pick up a win against Most.  If the Flyers won, it sent the Lower Austrian boys into the semis, and thankfully the Flyers did their part.

In the Semis, the Stars faced off against a very well balanced HC Herning team out of Denmark. The big Danes were itching for a game, and the Stars gave them one. The Danish squad struck first as a defensive zone breakdown left Bryce Fink alone. The Herning forward deked the young American, and slipped the puck past him on the glove side for a 1-0 lead. Dylan Weber (Hrdina, Fellinger) struck on the powerplay to draw the Austrian squad even with the Danish team, before Weber again beat the Danish netminder with a wicked wristshot to give the Stars a 2-1 lead. Everything was looking good, but suddenly the penalty-parade began, and the Stars played the majority of the second period short-handed. Unable to weather the storm, Fink couldn’t stop everything, and Herning tied the game on the powerplay, before taking the lead just three minutes later. After still being down short-handed and forced to pull their goalie looking for the equalizer, the Stars watched as Herning buried an empty-netter, and the Stars tasted defeat for just their 4^th time in the last twelve games.

The bronze medal match was not even a flicker on the radar for the Stars, who dominated their opponents: HC Beroun from the Czech Republic. Weber scored his second short-handed goal of the tournament in the first period, and Fabio Kläy notched on the powerplay (Hrdina, Kummer) to give the Stars a 2-0 win and their first hardware, a bronze, in tournament play.  Bryce Fink picked up the win in the nets.

“Overall, I think that it was a great tournament for us. We played hard, and against some very good teams. I think that we had some lapses, but we maintained a pretty high pace-of-play, we were physical, and we really worked our powerplay. I was proud of our guys for giving it their all, despite some of the adversity thrown their way,” Stars coach O’Leary praised. “I was especially happy with the way the lines were working, and how much we were able to accomplish given we were missing several key players for our team. It was a good effort.

Next up for the Stars will be their own hosted tournament in St. Polten April 24^th-25^th. Please check out this link for more details on the tournament, as well as schedules.