Stars battle from behind to start the IJYHL tournament.
Everett MA, March 9: Down a goal within the first minute of play, the ever steady Dover Stars Squirt Major team (ranked 3rd), battled back to beat the New England Predators (Haverill, ranked 6th) 7-3 in the opener of the IJYHL tournament. The game was laden with penalties, with the Predators drawing 8 to the Stars’ 4.
5 Different goal scorers on the 7 goals:
Will MacLean from Wyatt Allaire and Jameson Goodridge
MacLean from Marshall Ford
Andrew Bertolini from Tucker Smith
MacLean from Goodridge and Allaire
Smith unassisted
Bertolini from Goodridge
Goodridge from MacLean
Dover Stars upset the Boston Stars with a full 45 minute effort
Somerville MA, March 10: The Dover Stars faced the Boston Stars (Somerville) on Saturday night and upset the talented, 2nd ranked team 8-1. This time, Dover took the lead early, putting the Boston Stars on their heels and never looked back. Scoring 49 seconds into the game was Connor Lapierre. Lapierre, ever versatile, moved up to wing from defense for the IJ tournament. Jameson Goodridge added the second goal of the period, the eventual game winner, just 3 minutes later. In total 6 different goal scorers would lead the charge.
The second period brought even more effort from the Dover team resulting in 3 more goals. Even with only two forward lines, the boys were skating like they were floating on air. Goals were scored by Goodridge from Will MacLean, MacLean from Wyatt Allaire, and Andrew Bertolini unassisted.
Solid goaltending by Christopher Eno permeated throughout the game and it continued through the third period. Three third period goals were scored by Tucker Smith unassisted, Goodridge from Allaire, and Allaire unassisted.
Previous matchups resulted in Dover losses of 7-2 (Sep 25), 8-0 (Oct 8), 7-2 (Nov 12), and 8-1 (Jan 21) with a sole win on December 11th by a score of 7-6.
Tremendous effort by all the defensive pairs (Marshal Ford and Jaylyn Jewell, Liam Cannon and Mikey Somerset, Brendan Tersolo and Alex Anderson) who although absent on the score sheet, gave their best team effort all season, shutting down a Boston Stars team that averaged over 6 goals per game coming into the playoffs.
This game was unlike any other the team had played. For a full 45 minutes, the players put out 100% effort and they all found themselves in “The zone”. That’s the amazing feeling when everything you do works out, the puck looks like the size of a beach ball to the goalie and the net looks like a soccer goal to the forwards.
It’s fair to say that maybe even the Dover Stars themselves didn’t know that they could put on such a display, but it’s guaranteed that the rest of the league never saw it coming. The Dover Stars, after battling for their playoff lives over the last couple of weekends, were not done yet, and they wanted another shot at a title.
Stars come up one goal short against top ranked Hitmen
Somerville, March 11: The Stars came into the early morning on Sunday’s game knowing that there were only two teams left in the league. A feeling that was familiar to this team. A team that had built its brother(and sister)hood through hard fought wins when the pressure was on. The Stars were ready to face the best team in the league. The Rhode Island Hitmen had the best goals against average in the league at 1.36 and averaged 5 goals scored in each game. Previous games for the Stars were all losses of 3-0 (Oct 1), 8-0 (Oct 2), 3-2 (Nov 19), and 7-1 (Nov 20).
Three minutes into the first period the Hitmen would get on the board with a good shot from the point that was redirected on its way in. Goalie Christopher Eno was not able to see through the Hitmen screen. That would be the only goal of the period as Eno would defend the goal alongside his defensive teammates who battled to protect his crease on every shift.
Down 2-0 in the second period after a Hitmen goal 2 minutes into the period, the Stars had a calm presence on the bench. They were not deterred by the circumstances and knew that there was plenty of time to climb back into this game. After all, they had been down in almost every “win or go home” game situation all year.
Will MacLean would get on the board first for the Stars off a nice feed from Wyatt Allaire with 8 minutes remaining in the second. The momentum continued to erupt for the Stars as MacLean, breaking out of the penalty box with just over 5 minutes to play, was able to pick up an excellent breakaway pass from defenseman Brendan Tersolo and go in alone on the Hitmen goalie. MacLean made two confident moves and left the aggressive goalie way out of position for an “easy” backhand into an open net. The momentum had fully swung back into the Stars favor as they dominated the remainder of the period.
But the ever finicky pendulum of momentum would begin to ease back towards the Hitmen when, with 30 seconds left in the second, the Stars would be called for a four minute major boarding penalty. The Hitmen poured on their best effort of the game as they were able to score 2 power play goals in the next two minutes of the third period, taking full advantage of the major penalty. After a timeout to quell the Hitmen momentum, the Stars again, picked up their lunch pails and headed back to work. Down by 2 with 13 minutes to go was the challenge, and the Stars were up to it.
The save of the game came just moments later when Eno, after making one save, had a flickering puck heading toward the net behind him, swinging his blocker and stick back around behind him to his right, looking ever like Tim Thomas himself, Eno batted the puck out of mid air and away from the goal, preserving the 4-2 score.
Constant pressure late in the third resulted in an impressive, hard fought, goal by Allaire with ten minutes to go.
The Stars were again, line after line, shift after shift, playing their best hockey. With just over a minute to play the Stars, pulled their goalie for an extra attacker, but couldn’t solve the Hitmen’s neutral zone defense. On this given Sunday, the net just didn’t appear as large as it had just one day before and the Stars fell one goal short, losing 3-4.
It was quite a sight to see, this crazy group of 10 year olds playing as a team they way they do, both on and off the ice. The team should be proud of their accomplishments this weekend and this season.
Go Stars!
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