Bad second period sinks Stars

  St. Thomas trails London, 2-0, in GOJHL Western Conference final

  As Nationals score six times in second period in a 7-2 win 

Thursday, March 29, 2018

By Rob J. Ross 

ST. THOMAS - Last time the St. Thomas Stars were thumped in the playoffs the Junior B club rallied with back to back wins.

The Stars need a similar response in order to avoid a deeper hole than they're currently in, following a 7-2 loss to the London Nationals, in game two of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League Western Conference final, in front of 850, at the Timken Centre.

The Nationals lead the series, two games to none.

London scored twice in 18 seconds during four-on-four-play in the first two minutes of the second period, before adding four more goals for a 7-0 lead, by the second intermission.

"It was a bad second period. We got caught sleeping on the four on four. That started the downard slide and the boys lost focus on the second goal," Stars' head coach Darren Kelly said. "We can't take shifts off against London because they will make you look silly and that's what they did in the second period during a five minute span."

The Nationals opened the scoring on a first period power play goal by Max Vinogradov.

St. Thomas had a power play to start the second period, but a questionable call on Stars' Kevin Hu at the side of the Nationals' net, made it four-on-four hockey.

"It was a bad call.  Their guy (Brett Whitehead) went to take a slap shot behind the net to clear it (puck) and Hu slipped on his stick and tripped him and they called it hooking," said Kelly. "That was a momentum killer right there. "

Brenden Trottier and Colin Wilson, ignited the Nationals' offence striking twice within 18 seconds. A second goal by Trottier and Cohen Kiteley twice, put London up 6-0 by the eight minute mark. Josh Coyle made it a seven goal bulge.

The Stars, who had been shutout for five consecutive periods, including London's 3-0 game one win, had third period goals by Jake Robinson, his fifth in the past five games, and Kevin Hu.

Nationals' goalie David Ovsjannikov made 29 saves.

 "Hopefully we can take away from the third. We have to get traffic in front of him (Ovsjannikov). We did a really good job in the first period of getting shots on net and traffic in front and that's what we have to keep doing," said Kelly. "When we look back over all of the periods we've played, we really only had one bad period. The first game they scored two goals. We didn't score on our chances and they blocked a lot of shots.

"The boys are young and we knew there will be games like this. We lost 7-3 (game five) to Leamington and we bounced back and won two straight."

Game three is at London, on Saturday, with game four, back the Timken Centre, Tuesday, April 3.

The Stars came up empty on seven power plays, including a 90 second five-on-three advantage.

Anthony Hurtubise started game two in net for the Stars, but was replaced by Jesse Hodgson, following London's fourth goal. Hurtubise made 12 saves, while Hodgson stopped 25 of 28 shots.

Both teams kept emotions in check for the majority of the game, aside from the final minutes of the second period. Stars' Matt Couto caught the attention of the Nationals, creating a melee after he collided with and fall on Ovsjannokov, who was behind the net playing the puck.

Adam Keyes, looking for his first point against London, continues to lead the Stars in playoff scoring, with 17 points. Defenceman Mason Millman has 10 assists, one less then Keyes.

Brett Fisher leads the Stars with seven goals. Robinson, Peter Fleming and Keyes, each have six.

It was the Nationals' first win at St. Thomas this season, after losing all three games at the Timken Centre, during the regular season.