Feb 12, 2018 | Bob Pozzebon | 748 views
Round Robin Playoff Game #3 vs Osprey Hawks
The Atom #2 team traveled to Feversham to take on the Osprey Hawks after being off the ice for a week and even though the coaching staff stressed the importance of getting out to a quick start the Stars came out flat and were never able to get their feet under them.
The Stars seemed to be looking ahead a little and didn't show the same drive and team work that propelled them to the playoffs and they fell victim to a Hawks team that played better then their regular season record indicated. The Hawks came out strong in the first period and took a 2 - 0 lead four minutes into the game. The Stars lacked cohesion as a team and hung there goalie out to dry and it wan't until six minutes into the game that Ben P was able to break free with the puck at his blue line and go in and score just over the glove of the Osprey goalie to allow the Stars to cut the lead in half at the end of the first period.
Between period the Coach Mike was blunt with his team, telling them that they had just played one of their worst periods of the season and they needed to up their effort level and look for more passes and get shots on net. The Stars did not respond though and gave up another goal just a minute into the period. The Stars did close the gap a couple minutes later with an assist going to Matthew M. on Ben's second goal of the game. The Hawks then took a penalty and the the Stars looked like they had a chance to finally pull even but they were unable to gain any momentum and ended up allowing a short-handed goal to fall behind 4 - 2 with just over a minute left in the period. The period was nearing the end when Zij. M got a pass from Jackson R and then forwarded it along to Ben who tallied his third goal of the game to bring the Stars within one goal at the end of the second period.
Again between periods Coach Mike and Coach Rob stressed to the team that they had to up their game and play like a team with more passing and effort but it was all for not as the Hawks came out and scored a goal less then a minute into the period and they never looked back. Both teams took multiple penalties the rest of the way and the Hawks were the only team to score on their chances and in the end the Stars fell 8 - 3 to the Hawks.
The loss hurts the Stars drive to the championship and Coach Mike was straight forward with the team afterwards and called the team out for the turd of game that they played and promised to skate them harder going forward.