Stars rebound with playoff win

The Squirt Stars responded to last week's tough Canadian road trip by scoring a resounding 4-1 victory over the Red Sabres in the first playoff game for each team.

Jimmy Kirkpatrick was the star of the game, contributing a hat trick in an outstanding display of skating ability. He scored the first goal with 5:36 left in the first period on a breakaway after accepting an outstanding pass from Steven Zaprowski.

Ben Battaglia added to the lead 1:06 later putting the puck past outstanding Red Sabre goalie Andrew Welchoff.

Less than two minutes later, Adam Tucker answered for the Red Sabres on an unassisted breakaway.

Kirkpatrick knocked in an AJ Aquilino rebound in the second period, to extend the Stars' lead back to 3-1.

One minute later, Kirkpatrick finished the scoring, converting on a two-on-one break, notching the only power-play goal of the game.

The scoreless third period was punctuated by outstanding goaltending by Welchoff and the Stars' Christian Aichinger.

The Stars were aided by outstanding defensive plays by Patrick Irving, Heather Casselman, Justin Bystrak, Christian Cretella and Jonah Held.

Welchoff was constantly tested by Ben Warda, Dan Bounds, Samantha Degen, Neal Greiner and Craig Mc- Cabe.

The Red Sabre effort was led by Nicholas Tracy, Alex Gervase and rookie of the year candidate, Andrew White.