Mite Black Sabres win semifinal over Sharks

The Mite Black Sabres faced the Sharks for the first Mite semifinal game on Wednesday, March 21. It was a hard fought game with both sides knowing that the game's winner would go to Super Sunday. Center Nick Carbone and goalie Jacob Ostrowski in the net saved the day for the Black Sabres, who won 2-1.

The first seven minutes of the game were even. The Black Sabres would get it into their scoring end and shoot for the net only to have it blocked by the Sharks defense and goalkeeper Holden Greene. In return, Ostrowski and the Black Sabres defense worked hard to keep the puck heading back to safety.

With 3:39 to go in the first, the Sharks' Nicholas Daigler made a beautiful breakaway from out of their end zone, faked out the Black Sabres defense and scored. Shortly after, the Sharks were on a power play and almost scored their second point, but the combined efforts of Hunter Noll and Matthew Shiring prevented the goal.

A line change and a faceoff in the Black Sabres end zone saw another Sharks shot that rebounded from Ostrowski and was carried to the back of the net by Aaron Bengart. Carbone picked it up and tore across the ice into the clear to make a beautiful breakaway down the full length of the Olympic Rink and scored with only 28.9 seconds remaining in the first.

The second period saw an almost identical play by the Black Sabres to score its second goal. Carbone and Bengart tussled with Nicolas Daigler of the Sharks before Carbone was able to tear it away and skate fast with it again. After a couple of beautiful fakes, a high shot on goal found its target with only 1:56 to go.

In the third period, the Sharks' Salvatore Di Natale, Michael Woods and Nicholas Daigler all had shots on goal, but Ostrowski kept them from scoring. Black Sabre Shiring also made a breakaway and a shot on goal but it was saved by Greene.

The period ended pointless. Ostrowski took the game puck for Black Sabres MVP.