Stars take Bruins, advance to Super Sunday

The Mite Bruins met the Stars again in the semifinals for the Amherst house league Mite playoffs this past Thursday night. The Stars won 5-1.

The Bruins got behind the Stars' defense again and again, but Michael Trossman was on a mission in goal and would not let the puck into the net.

The game was close with the Stars outshooting the Bruins 18-17l but strong backchecking by Logan Gare, Michael Gagliano, Michael Callesto, and Bryce Baker foiled the Bruins' attack, while strong offense by Max Ferro, Matt Schrlau, Hunter Endres, Jake Siegel, Cam Carney, and Leah Kramer kept the pressure on.

Midway through the first period, the Stars got on the board when Turner Dirrigl, working hard in the Bruins' corner, got the puck out in front where Max Ferro found the back of the net.

On the next shift, Schrlau won a faceoff in the neutral zone back to Cam Murray, who dumped the puck back to Schrlau, who hit it ahead into the Bruins' zone. Endres beat defender Steve Metzger to the loose puck, skated in and launched a wrist shot which beat Jacob Zurat to the glove side.

Zurat was tough in goal for the Bruins, stopping breakaways by Connor Bender, Schrlau, and Siegel.

The third line teamed up again for the Stars' next two goals as Schrlau took a Murray pass from the point and beat Zurat. On his next shift, Schrlau won the faceoff in the Bruins end, pulled the puck to center and banged it home. Trossman's play was impressive as he stoned Anthony Di- Maria, Matt Drewery, and Joey Demarco time after time as they broke loose into the Stars' end.

Just as the second period was coming to a close, Demarco again got behind the Stars' defense and beat Trossman top shelf as he went down to stop the shot.

The Stars' rounded out the scoring with Bender taking the puck deep in his zone, weaving through the traffic all the way down the ice and beating Zurat with a hard wrist shot high to the glove side.