Stars defeat Red Sabres, 9-2

Michael Trossman, Camden Murrey, and Leah Kramer all scored their first career goals as the Mite Stars beat the Red Sabres, 9-2, on Dec. 31.

The Stars were a team on a mission from the very start of the game. On the second shift of the game, Max Ferro took a Logan Gare pass and put the puck into the net.

Two shifts later, Trossman took a pass from Connor Bender and launched a perfect wrist shot over the blocker of goaltender Greg Koutsomitis. Bender followed less than a minute later with his own goal, delivering on a pass from Bryce Baker. Just before the shift ended, Baker scored after being set up by a pass from fellow defenseman Cam Carney.

The first period came to a close with the Stars ahead 4-0.

During the second period, Kramer slid a puck loose in the crease over the line to add to the Stars lead.

In the third period, the Stars stepped up the pace again getting many shots on net, most of which were stopped by Koutsomitis. Murrey finally put one past him at the seven-minute mark of the period followed soon after by a goal from Gare. Nick Keiffer added to the Stars lead by tipping in a shot by Michael Gagliano from the point and linemate Ferro rounded out the scoring for the Stars with an unassisted goal late in the period.

The Stars played well, passing the puck around and controlling play for most of the game.

The Red Sabres were able to finally put points on the board during the last shift when Adam Smolka received a pass from the corner from teammate Tim Finley and slid it under the stick of Stars goalie Joe Tomczak. Smolka came back 30 seconds later with an unassisted goal bringing the final score to 9-2 Stars.

The Stars also benefited from the strong back checking of Jacob Siegel whose heads up play prevented the Red Sabres from generating points on their first line.