With a weekend off and a whole week to prepare for the Drillers, the Jr. Stars were anxious to show what they could do on home ice against the 3rd placed team in the South Division.
On Friday, it was a back and forth affaire in the first period with both teams feeling each other out with the score tied at goose eggs by the first buzzer. Ozzy MacDonald opened up the scoring with the defenseman scoring his first of the year at the 7:34 mark of the second period. The Drillers would tie the score at the 15:04 mark as Thomas Mougin notched his first goal of the weekend.
In the third period, Stars’ leading scorer, Ilnur Madiarov, scored his 11th of the season to make the game 2-1 early in the third. Making his Jr. Stars debut, Timothy Pickrell scores the game-winning goal on his birthday at the 11:31 mark in the third period. Thomas Mougin would notch another goal, but it would be too little too late as the Stars win the first game of the weekend.
Saturday, the Drillers were able to turn their fortunes around by claiming a win, but it was far from easy. Braeden Sheaffer scored the only goal in the first period with a seeing-eye shot from the left point for the Drillers.
The second period saw five goals between the two teams, with Mid-Cities forwards Isaac Fuller and Brendon Zeis in their second appearances providing scoring depth. Fuller collected his first two goals of the season while Zeis collected his first. The Drillers countered with goals by Chris Littlefield and Thomas Mougin to end the period 3-3.
In the third, Drillers forward Anderson O’Connor scored the lone goal to claim the victory and tie the weekend series.
Sunday’s game was a thriller with the Jr. Stars taking the lead at the 11:10 mark in the first period with an Allen’s Construction Power Play Goal by Michael Kennedy. 32 seconds later, Kyle Russell puts the biscuit in the basket for his 5th of the season with the Stars leading 2-0. With under two minutes left in the first period, Anderson O’Connor cut the deficit in half with his 5th of the season.
The second period was physical, with both teams collecting over 20 plus penalty minutes in the period. Frank Steinway tied the score 2-2 for the Drillers, and it was a new hockey game entering the third period.
Halfway through the third period, Ozzy MacDonald collected his second of the weekend. Blake Lind, coming off of his served two-game suspension, found his way onto the score sheet, and the Stars found themselves up by two. With two minutes left, the Drillers were able to score two goals by Tyler Walker and Frank Steinway, and extra time was needed to finish the game. In OT, both teams played tight defensively and found themselves needing the shootout to find a resolution.
The shootout went as follows:
Louisiana Drillers: #12 Anderson O’Connor—No Goal
Mid-Cities Jr. Stars: #27 Ilnur Madiarov— No Goal
Louisiana Drillers: #71 Mark Lurliandchyk — No Goal
Mid-Cities Jr. Stars: #17 Blake Lind— Goal
Louisiana Dillers: #9 Thomas Mougin— Goal
Mid-Cities Jr. Stars: #8 AJ Machado— No Goal
Louisiana Drillers: # 5 Tyler Walker — No Goal
Mid-Cities Jr. Stars: #91 Michael Kennedy— No Goal
Louisiana Drillers: #13 Frank Steinway— No Goal
Mid-Cities Jr. Stars: #6 Colton Sebastian— Goal
Colton Sebastian sealed Sunday’s game for the Jr. Stars while goaltender Adler Hoagland collected his first shootout win and put the Mid-Cities squad 5th in the South Division with 10 points and a 5-8-0-0 record. The next game for the Jr. Stars will be November 5th and 6th against the Brahmas in the Children’s Health StarCenter.