The Jr. Stars faced a difficult task this past weekend. Head into the NYTEX Sports Centre and deliver the Texas Brahmas, South Division leaders, their first loss of the season.
The two-game series started on Friday night. It was all Brahmas from the opening puck drop with Erik Vrkoc starting the scoring at the 5:48 mark of the first period with Aleksandr Gamzatov and Matt Coe collecting two more goals before the end of the period. Mid-Cities forward Issac Fuller added 25 more penalty minutes to his stat sheet by dropping the gloves with Brahmas defenseman Joey Carollo late in the period.
At 2:41 of the second period, Gamzatov collects his second of the game, with Michael Imala pushing the lead to five by the end of the buzzer.
The third period of Friday’s game saw the Brahmas collecting five more goals, with Gamzatov collecting a hat trick and his 17th goal of the season. Cameron Colberg notched his first of the game along with Luc Yorkinson. Imala and Coe found themselves back into the goal column, and the game ended with a score of 10-0. Mid-Cities goaltender Quillon Bowman was charged with the loss after stopping 33 of 42 shots. Goaltender Dolan Gilbert for the Brahmas stopped all nine shots seen his way.
Bench boss and Assistant Coach Drew Lind spoke to media before Saturday’s game about wanting to see the fight out of the Jr. Stars, knowing that they had a challenging task ahead of them, and having them meet it head-on.
The Brahmas opened the scoring with Keegan McArthur grabbing his second of the season and Benjamin Mondou, the Bauer Hockey NA3HL South Division Star of the Week, pressing the lead to 2-0. Micheal Kennedy scored the lone goal of the series for the Jr. Stars to cut the lead in half before Imala ended the period 3-1.
The Brahmas took complete control of the game in the second period by scoring three more goals courtesy of McArthur, who completed a hat trick, and Imala scoring his 15th on the season, second of the game.
The third period saw Jeremiah Snyder and Matt Coe add goals 7 and 8 onto the scoreboard, with Mid-Cities goaltender Adler Hoagland collecting the loss after stopping 46 of 54 shots. In contrast, Anthony Russo stopped 16 of 17 for the Brahmas.
The Jr. Stars head into the NA3HL Showcase in Blaine, Minnesota, sitting 6th in the South Division with a 7-16-0-0 record.