It was no secret that last weekend was a rough one. After coming off of a weekend where all three games against the Louisiana Drillers were all one-goal games and winning two out of three, the goal differential ended up being minus 19 by the end of Saturday night’s game against the undefeated Texas Brahmas.
Friday’s game was all Brahmas from the jump, with them scoring five goals by the end of the first buzzer scored by Eric Vrkoc, Cameron Colberg, Michael Kramer, Gion Coray, and Luc Yorkison. Adler Hoagland got the start between the pipes for the Jr. Stars but was pulled for Quillon Bowman after the first four goals of the period.
The second period was much the same as the Brahmas continued their “pedal to the metal” mentality and scored four more goals. Aleksandr Gamzatov collected a hat trick, and Michael Kramer collected his second of the game. Eric Vrkoc scored his 15th goal of the season by collecting the lone goal in the third period for a final score of 10-0.
The official stat sheet showed Dolan Gilbert in the net, but it was Anthony Russo that collected the shutout win.
During the Mid-Cities Hockey Network Pregame Show before Saturday’s broadcast, Assistant Coach Drew Lind was asked about finding any silver linings from that tough loss. He stated that losses like those “can bring them together as a team” the mentality was “that there was nowhere to go but up.”
It was UNT Night Saturday night, and the Jr. Stars attempted to impact the start of the game by getting an Allen’s Construction Power Play Goal early in the period, but to no avail. Still, like in the previous game, the Brahmas never relinquished possession once they collected the puck.
In the first period, Brahmas forwards Luc Yorkison and Cameron Colberg scored only two goals, but the Jr. Stars had played a closer game by the end of the first twenty minutes, with Jr. Stars goaltender Quillon Bowman stopping 25 of 27 shots.
Blake Lind scored the only goal for the Jr. Stars of the weekend at the 13-second mark of the second period with an assist from Isaac Fuller. That goal cut the deficit in half and gave the team confidence until two minutes later; Aleksandr Gamzatov collected the first of four Brahmas goals that period, with Jeremiah Snyder, Joey Carollo, and Troy Kirk all netting goals from the point.
The third period saw the Bauer Hockey NA3HL Star of the Month, Erik Vrkoc, net two more goals on the weekend, with Michael Kramer scoring two goals of his own to bring the final score to 10-1.
The Jr. Stars are 5-10-0-0 and now sit 6th in the South Division Standings with the Texas RoadRunners coming into the Children’s Health StarCenter in Euless next on November 12th with puck drop scheduled for 7:00 p.m.