RECAP: Xtreme 4 - Stars 3

Just the day before a game to determine who would finish top of the table at the Christmas break, the Adelaide Xtreme found out that their captain and marquee player Joey MacDougall would be out with a rib injury.

The question quickly shifted to who would step up in his place vs a high-tempo Stars squad who were buoyed by the additions of 18-year-old sensation Daniel Chen and Melbourne Ice forward Sam Hodic.

In the end, four different goal scorers found the back up the net in a gutsy 4-3 win over the Stars.

“We knew it would be difficult to fill Joey’s role,” said head coach Eric Lien after the game. “But the fact that we have a bunch of different guys who can play centre made a difference. We drafted depth down the middle and that’s exactly what that was for.”

With the usual Jared Siemens, Joey MacDougall and Noah Maley line naturally unable to go, Maley was called upon to anchor a second line while Siemens had to anchor a line of his own.

The result? Two assists for Siemens, three drawn penalties for Maley and a great assist on the eventual winning goal.

“If you didn’t know who Noah Maley was before the game, if you didn’t notice him with the Jokers, if you didn’t see him early in the season, you know about him now. That was a coming out party,” he says.

The game noticeably had a different tempo than some of the other high flying NHSL affairs. We got used to seeing shot totals of 40+ per team each game.

Tonight the shots on goal were 30-28 in favour of the Xtreme.

The Stars had significant losses in this game too. Captain Jan Koubek was ill and unable to play. Josh Harding has a nagging injury and was out of the line up. Losing arguably your top forward and top defenseman also hurts.

Either way, the Stars had a talented group of forwards that included Chen and Hodic.

Daniel Chen especially made his presence felt.

With his team down 2-1 in the second period, the tenacious teenager drew two penalties with his feisty efforts. He also scored maybe the goal of the season.
 

Daniel took the puck off his brother Andrew at the blue line, walked Tom Tait, and powered a nifty back hand over Jeremy Friederich to tie the game at 2-2.

But other than a few moments the Stars found themselves down most of the game. That was also in part to some solid play from the Xtreme goaltender who bounced back after allowing seven last week.

“That’s probably understated too,” said Lien. “Jeremy made that excellent save in the second period but was there all night to make the saves when we really needed them to suck the life out of it."

The Penalty Kill was a strong point for both teams. The Xtreme were limited to 1-9 on the power play while the Stars were 0-8.

Here’s how the game unfolded.

FIRST PERIOD

On a 37 degree Adelaide day the ice was sticky and the puck was moving slow.

The Xtreme opened the scoring off a funny bounce from the glass on the power play. The puck ricocheted off the glass on the left, right to Jared Siemens who drove the puck forward to Jordan Geyer who knocked home a nifty backdoor pass.

The Xtreme added to their lead moments later when Nathaniel Benson found Adrian Esposito standing all alone in front of the net who tucked a backhand past Glen Forbes White.

The Stars did respond by driving the net hard. Zach Steele scooped up a loose puck, powered down the left wing, worked around the defense and threw a goal line pass to the front of the net for Yoann Levesque who scored his third of the year.

SECOND PERIOD

The NHSL has brought a chaotic period to each and every game. This was that period.

Within the first five minutes of the middle frame, Daniel Chen and Noah Maley drew two penalties each. Three of them were for checking from behind that saw Xtreme defenseman Graham Charbonneau and Stars forwards Sam Hodic and Jake Riley take 10 minute misconducts.

Exciting three on three hockey and a wave of opportunities but no goals.

Until Daniel Chen scored a world class goal. He took the puck off his brother Andrew, walked Tom Tait, and powered a nifty back hand over Jeremy Friederich to tie the game.

The Xtreme seized the lead back when Jared Siemens tallied his second assist of the game by passing the puck from behind the net to Dean Peterson who scored his second of the year.

Moments later Noah Maley put his finger prints on the game even more. He already drew two penalties in the period, and while he didn’t get an assist on the goal he deserved it. Maley kept the puck in the zone off an attempted Stars’ clearance, dangled around three Stars player, got the puck to Esposito who had a give and go with Olli Martin.

Martin finished by scoring his fourth goal in as many games to make it a 4-2 lead heading into the third.

THIRD PERIOD

The third period was a slower tempo but trademarked by a sharp shot from Jake Riley.

Yoann Levesque dished the puck to Riley in the high slot who made it a one goal game in the middle of the third period.

Other than that, the opportunities were few and far between. The Xtreme did a nice job of taking away the space and limiting the speed of the Stars.

The result? 2 points for the Xtreme and a first place spot at the break.

The Stars are in third with three points, while the Brewers take a 2-2 record with four.

The NHSL returns January 14 with a game between the Brewers and Stars.

1ST PERIOD

2ND PERIOD

3RD PERIOD