Sports

Stars 19U start season

By Tyler Ohmann

12/10/2013

The season for the Bottineau Stars 19U hockey team began recently as the Stars played Neepawa, Manitoba three times and also hosted Bismarck last Friday.

Through the four games the Stars are winless, but had chances to win in each game. In the opener in Canada on Nov. 29, Bottineau tied Neepawa 3-3. The Stars then hosted three games at home this past weekend.

On Friday they fell 3-2 at the hands of the Bismarck Avalanche. The Stars then fell 1-0 to Neepawa on Saturday and drew a 1-1 tie against Neepawa on Sunday.

“We had a good start, we were competitive in every game,” said Stars head coach Matt Johnson.

First in the opener the Stars fell behind to Neepawa 1-0 early in the second period. Bottineau evened the score later in the period as Hunter Bennie notched a goal at 14:51. Shelby Pedie and Karlee McCloud earned helpers on the play.

After falling behind 2-1 the Stars struck again as Paige Vad scored an unassisted marker with eight minutes left in the second.

The Stars took the lead later in the second period when Bennie scored her second goal. Vad assisted on the go-ahead goal.

However, Neepawa managed to get another shot past Stars goalie Jacie Ceglowski in the third period and the game ended in a 3-3 tie.

On Friday the Stars began the first of a three-game series at home, but fell in a heartbreaker 3-2 to the Bismarck Avalanche.

Bottineau kicked off the scoring in the first period as Karlee McCloud notched her first goal of the year.

In the second period things took a turn toward the Avalanche as they scored three times in five minute stretch to take a 3-1 lead.

Severson scored in the final frame to draw the game to within a goal, but the Stars were unable to capitalize on several scoring chances and fell by one.

On Saturday the Stars took on Neepawa for the second time this year and the game turned into a goalie duel that Neepawa took 1-0.

The game was scoreless for most of the first two periods.

However, Neepawa managed to crack the code on Ceglowski and hit the game-winning goal with 1:19 left.

The Stars were unable to find the back of the net against Neepawa net minder Shaelyn Leflar.

On Sunday it was much of the same between the two teams as they met up once again. This time the game ended in a 1-1 tie.
Neepawa scored in the first period to take the lead.

Despite out shooting Neepawa 36-16 the Stars only got one goal past Leflar. This came with 9:57 left in the final period as Vad scored for the third time this season. Bennie assisted on the play that evened the game.

Leflar stopped 35 of the Stars’ shots in the game, and was the reason the game remained tied.

“They had a good goalie,” Johnson said. “The shots were like 35-15, but we couldn’t get much by her.”

Johnson believes the series will help the Stars moving forward as they get into league play.

“They were a good team, and we were pretty evenly matched,” Johnson said. “This will be a big help for us going into league play.”

 “If we can play like this against Williston, it will go very well,” Johnson added.

Goal scoring has not come as easy as they are used to in the past. That’s because the Stars graduated two of their best scorers in Ashley Blue and Natalie Bahr last season.

“We’re looking for scoring, and losing Ashley (Blue) and Natalie (Bahr) we lost about 60 percent of our scoring,” Johnson said. “It will come, and we’re working on it.”

However, the Stars have leadership in seniors Bailey Neubauer and McCloud, and a number of young players that played last season.

“We only have two seniors, so we’re still pretty young, but we have a good group,” Johnson said.

Bottineau (0-2-2) will host Williston in Bottineau at 4:30 p.m. this Sunday in their next contest.