Bruins fall to Stars, 4-1, at Pepsi Center

It was another early day at the Amherst Pepsi Center as the Stars faced off against the Bruins on Sunday. The Bruins won 4-1.

When these two teams met early in the year, the Stars hung on to win by one goal. The game this week proved to be just as exciting. Both teams have developed well over this season, and both defenses had their hands full trying to stop their opponent's offensive rushes.

The story in this game was the goaltending by Stars' goalie Michael Trossman and Bruins' netminder Jacob Zurat. Both made terrific saves throughout the game.

The first period was a tightly played contest with Trossman turning away shot after shot, including a Joey DeMarco breakaway, while Zurat stopped good shots from Michael Gagliano, Leah Kramer and Jake Siegel and breakaways from Logan Gare and Bryce Baker.

The second period continued in the same manner, with Trossman again stopping a Bruins' breakaway put together when Steve Metzger got the puck from Dylan Birzon and went in on net.

Midway through the second period, however, Hunter Endress took a pass from defenseman Joe Tomczak and found the back of the Bruins' net, putting up the first Stars' goal.

During the next shift, defenseman Connor Bender broke in on goal from the blue line, but his shot missed the net. The puck hit the boards and came back out front, where Jake Siegel was waiting to fire it home, adding to the Stars' tally.

On the next shift, the Stars' second line converted as Gare centered the puck to Max Ferro, which he redirected past Zurat into the net.

The Bruins had several opportunities, but strong back checking by the Stars prevented the Bruins from putting points on the board. Bender, Michael Callesto, Cam Carney, Turner Dirrgl, Nick Kieffer and Tomczak repeatedly prevented Bruins' shots on goal.

The play in the third period again went back and forth, with both teams having opportunities as Matt Schrlau hit the post for the Stars, and Bruins' Dylan Birzon just missed the open side of the net at the other end of the rink.

The Bruins finally foiled Trossman's shutout hopes with three minutes left, as the Stars were unable to clear the puck from in front of their goal. Trossman kicked the puck out twice but was unable to cover up, and Joey Demarco was able to push the puck over to Matt Drewery, who flipped it up into the net. The Stars answered right back, though, as Ferro broke in on the net from the top of the circle in the Bruins' end, put a deke on Zurat and tucked the puck neatly behind him into the open net as the shift ended.