Intensity Picking Up

One of three remaining regular season Stars' games was played today in front of a sellout crowd at Kasabuski Arena. Waltham came into town not knowing what to expect and found themselves up against a wild and crazy home team intent on working their tails off. The energy level in the Stars' locker room was at an all time high for this one. Patrick Spychalski got them even more fired up with a quote from Kareem Abdul Jabaar, "One man can be a crucial ingredient to a team but one man cannot make a team." Such a true statement and it's pretty obvious that this group heeds his advice. From the defense to the forwards to the stellar goaltending today, they all worked together to pull off a big 6-4 win over Waltham. Cam Sullivan got the ball rolling by picking off a pass and streaking in to put his first of two home today. Cam continues to show flashes of Torey Krug with some awesome rushes from his D position. His partner Jimmy Driscoll had his back which made it easier for him to decide to jump into the play. Anthony Grabau and Stevie Migliero made up the other D pair. Stevie got into the mix multiple times and muscled the puck up the boards. Grabau has found his niche on D and had some amazing plays to break up some Waltham rushes. The Stars offense swarmed the away team all game long. The first line of Spychalski, Jonathan Soares and Abi Travers provided a checking type feel to all of their shifts by keeping pressure on Waltham. The next line of Dion Sacca, Jack Glowacz and James Glowacz were on fire today. Jack continues to have the hot hand popping in three for the hat trick. He also hustled back and broke up a rushing Waltham forward and received a marginal call of hooking. Jack is starting to understand the role of center well. The third line of Mike Murphy, Brendan Heffron and Timmy Sullivan also showed off their scoring prowess. Murf even found himself in the penalty box after digging hard on a backcheck and eliminating a Waltham attacker. Heffron, playing center, had an unbelievable Bergeron-like two way game. Breaking away after a feed from one of his wings, Heffron put a sweet move on the goalie and fired it home. He also understands what it takes to be center and flew back to break up a sure 2 on 0 breakaway. Brendan came off that shift dripping blood but refused to give in. For his extra effort today, he earned a coveted game puck. None of the scoring or defensive effort would overshadow the great goaltending by Joseph Soares in this one. He was in the zone today, stopping everything he could see. His focused effort earned him a game puck also. The Soares brothers have teamed up in net for back to back wins to help propel this Stars team into the middle of the Valley League North American Division standings. Overheard on the bench from a pint size winger was this, "there's blood all over the ice, this is awesome!" Yeah, the intensity was certainly there for this one! Not even an iPhone camera could capture any of this group standing still!