Stars defeat Black Sabres in overtime for Mite house league crown

The Stars' Leah Kramer skates away from diving Black Sabre Charles Rottner during the Mite House league championship game on Super Sunday, March 25 at the Pepsi Center. The Stars won 4-3 in overtime. Photo by Joe Eberle Purchase color photos at www.BeeNews.com

The Stars defeated the Black Sabres, 4-3, in overtime on Sunday, March 25 for the Amherst Youth Hockey Mite house league championship at the Amherst Pepsi Center.

The Black Sabres were fired up right from the start. Daniel Mosher took the puck off the opening faceoff and took a hard shot at goaltender Michael Trossman. Trossman stopped the shot with a good stick save but left a rebound that was pounced on by center Nick Carbone, who slid the puck between Trossman's legs eight seconds into the game.

The Stars settled in after that wakeup call by playing good solid defense and keeping the puck out of their zone. Likewise, the Black Sabres worked hard and much of the play was back and forth through the neutral zone until the last shift of the period. Stars defenseman Connor Bender picked up the puck in his zone and skated down the ice. Bender got behind the defense but was tripped up by Mosher as he crossed into the Black Sabres' zone to prevent a breakaway.

Black Sabres goalie Jacob Ostrowski watches a shot from the Stars' Hunter Endres elude him. Photo by Joe Eberle Purchase color photos at www.BeeNews.com

With the man advantage, the Stars peppered goaltender Jacob Ostrowski with shots, but he stood tall stopping everything that the Stars threw at him. The Black Sabres finally cleared the puck to the neutral zone, but Bender picked it up there, waited for his teammates to tag up, and with a three-man press, came in against the Black Sabres. With one second left in the period, Bender put the puck up and beat Ostrowski, evening the score at 1-1.

The second and most of the third period occurred much the same as the first with Trossman and Ostrowski stopping several breakaways apiece and the teams battling from one end of the rink to the other.

Three minutes into the last period, Bryce Baker found himself back checking and covering for the defense who was stuck up ice. Baker passed the puck up into the neutral zone where Bender was able to get control of it. He wove around the Black Sabres' defense, pulled around Ostrowski and tucked the puck neatly behind him. This put the Stars up by one, but the Black Sabres were far from done.

The Stars defeated the Black Sabres, 4-3 in overtime on March 25 to win the Amherst Youth Hockey 2007 Mite House title. Members of the team, pictured from left, are: Nick Kieffer, Michael Gagliano, Hunter Endres, Max Ferro, Turner Dirrigl, Michael Trossman, Logan Gare, Joe Tomczak, Camden Murray, Leah Kramer; second row - Matt Schrlau, Cam Carney, Connor Bender, Jacob Siegel, Michael Callesto, Brice Baker; third row - coaches John Tomczak, Brian Trossman, Steve Carney, and Hunter Endres.

With five and a half minutes left in the game, Nick Carbone broke in to the Stars zone and was kept outside to the boards. He was able to get a hard wrist shot off from the faceoff hash though, and the shot deflected off the Stars' defenseman and trickled past Trossman tying the game.

A minute later, Carbone struggled in and around the Stars defense again, getting just enough on a shot to go over Trossman's pad putting the Black Sabres on top once again.

With the game winding down fast, the Stars' knew that they needed to work hard and the second line of Max Ferro, Turner Dirrigl, Logan Gare, Michael Gagliano, and Nick Kieffer came through for them. They pressed hard, keeping the puck in the Black Sabres zone, and when Gare pushed the puck past the Black Sabres' defense high in the slot, Max Ferro was there to take it and slam it home knotting the game up with less than four minutes left in regulation play.

With 24 seconds remaining, Carbone again broke in alone on goal with the Stars' defense in hot pursuit but Trossman snagged his hard shot out of mid air with a perfect glove save to deny the Black Sabres a victory.

As the buzzer sounded to end regulation, the score was still tied at 3-3, so a four and a half minute overtime period was called. This period stared off much the same with both teams trying desperately to create the one scoring opportunity needed to declare victory. Finally, with only 30 seconds left, Bender picked up the puck that was dumped into the Stars' zone, went behind his own net and started up ice. As he went around players he was joined by Jake Siegel as he crossed into the Black Sabres' zone. His hard wrist shot was stopped by Ostrowski as he kicked the shot out, but Siegel was there to blast home the rebound past the kneeling Ostrowski.

Everyone contributed to the Stars' victory. The first line forwards, Cam Carney, Bryce Baker and Michael Callesto worked hard on both sides of the puck, driving to the net when opportunities arose but fiercely back checking when the play turned the other way. Carny, who spent much of the game trying to neutralize Carbone stopped him on several occasions that easily could have changed the result of the game. The third line of Matt Schrlau, Hunter Endres and Leah Kramer worked in concert with defensemen Joe Tomczak and Cam Murray to keep the pressure on Ostrowski, even though they were held scoreless in the game, their strong play served to keep much of the action in the Black Sabres' end during their shifts.