Stars heading to GOJHL Western final

  Robinson scores winner as St. Thomas takes game seven at Leamington, 2-0

Sunday, March 25, 2018

By Rob J. Ross 

LEAMINGTON, ON. - The St. Thomas Stars will be playing hockey in April.

Jake Robinson scored with just under five minutes remaining in the third period and Kevin Hu, added an empty net goal, as the Stars blanked the Leamington Flyers, 2-0, in game seven of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League (GOJHL) Western Conference semi-final.

(Game boxscore)

Anthony Hurtubise made 26 saves for his first shutout of the playoffs.

"The boys were hungry and ready and knew what they had to do. We played well defensively and created some scoring chances," Stars head coach Darren Kelly said.

   Kelly

"We played well on the defensive side of the puck. I was pleased with that. Hurty played well in net. Our defence kept it simple and that was our game plan. We didn't give them time and space to trap us up in our end."

Robinson has held the hot hand recently for the Stars, with four goals in the past three games.

"I talked to him (Robinson) after the second period and told him, make sure he was in the right spots at the right times. He was in the right spot in the third period," Kelly said. "It was actually a broken play that the goaltender mishandled the puck and it came out to Roby's stick in the slot."

 Adam Keyes assisted on both goals and now leads the Stars with 17 points, on six goals and 11 assists.

The Stars played some of their best hockey of the playoffs on the Flyers' home ice.

"We win two games in Leamington and they had only lost three games all year at home," said Kelly. "For us, we played well in game three to win 2-1 and tonight I think we had our best game of the series."

St. Thomas will face the London Nationals in the conference final, with game one on Wednesday, March 28, 7:30 p.m. at Western Fair District, in London.

The fifth place Stars won the regular season series against the first place Nationals, four games to two, and can take that momentum in to the final.

"We played London well. People can take that for what it is. If you looks at their stats and their roster, I'm sure when they played us they never had a full squad. It's a big rivalry. There're more London kids on our roster than there is on the London roster."

London, the two-time reigning conference champions, finished 10 points head of the Stars this season and led the conference in goals for and had the lowest goals-against average.

Brenden Trottier leads the Nationals in playoff scoring with 20 points, 18 being assists. Carson Brookshaw, a Thorndale native and former Star, has five goals and seven assists.

"All of their forwards can score. They have four lines that can score. Against Leamington, we didn't generate a lot of scoring, we just had timely scoring. We have to figure out a way to try to shut down their offence. It's going to be an up hill battle, but our boys have wanted a chance to play London."

London head coach and GM Pat Powers, a graduate of Parkside CI, was the Stars' head coach 10 years ago.

In the 2011 conference final, the Stars won the series against London, taking the clinching game in overtime, to advance to their only Sutherland Cup appearance in the past 20 years.