Zaprowski, Battaglia spark Squirt Stars win

Steven Zaprowski’s hat trick and Ben Battaglia’s two goals led the Squirt Stars to a 7-4 victory over the Gray Sabres on Dec. 23.

Zaprowski scored just 39 seconds into the game, weaving around and through the Gray Sabre defense from his own blue line.

Justin Bystrak extended the first period lead to two, beating Gray Sabre goalie Joe Burke low on the glove side, assisted by Ben Warda.

The Stars’ Jimmy Kirkpatrick opened the second period with a backhanded goal past the sprawling Burke with an assist from Neal Greiner.

The determined Gray Sabres answered with two goals within 90 seconds by Angelo Derossi and Peter Gossels to trim the Stars lead to one.

Battaglia scored on a nifty follow up of his own shot with 36 seconds left in the second from AJ Aquilino.

Derossi scored his second goal of the game one minute into the third to again bring the Gray Sabres within one.

Zaprowski then made a goal saving defensive play and hustled down the ice to join the Stars rush, scoring high on Burke’s glove side.

Twenty-six seconds later, Battaglia made the score, 6-3, Stars on a breakaway.

The Gray Sabres’ Katelyn Koester knocked in a Derossi rebound before Zaprowski ended the scoring with a sensational goal, carrying the puck out of his own zone and beating Burke high on the stick side.

The Stars effort was aided by solid goaltending by Craig McCabe and timely defensive plays by Zaprowski, Christian Aichinger and Daniel Bounds.

Heather Casselman, Patrick Irving and Samantha Degen applied constant offensive pressure to the Gray Sabres.