by David Honsberger
Joey Beauchamp's power play goal five minutes into the third period broke a 2-2- tie and the Strathroy Rockets hung on to edge the St. Thomas Stars 3-2 on Saturday in front of 523 spectators at the West Middlesex Memorial Arena in Strathroy.

All three Rockets goals came on the man advantage as the Rockets (11-5-1) built an early 2-0 on power play goals from Patrick Easter and Kyle Greenside before the Stars (6-9-3) rallied to tie the game at two.

The Rockets got off to a blistering start in the game. After being pummeled 9-1 the previous night in Chatham against the Maroons, the Stars - who dressed just 15 skaters - looked like deer caught in the headlights. By the time Patrick Easter opened the scoring at 5:27, the Rockets were already ahead 10-0 on the shot clock. The goal was the result of a nice cycle with line-mates Walter Easter and David Morden aided greatly by the slick passing of forwards Andrew McCombe and Andrew Secco on the points. Walter set up his brother Patrick in front of the net giving Stars netminder Matt Coutts (L, 6-5-2) no chance on the play.

The goal marked the fifth time this season that Easter has tallied the first goal of the game.

The Rockets doubled their lead when defenseman Jared Anger froze the Stars' defenders and Coutts when he hit sent an off-seam pass from the point to Greenside who fired the puck into an open net to put the Rockets up 2-0.

From that point on, the Stars were able to regroup and began making better choices with and without the puck, as the shots were 9-9 for the remainder of the period.

The Stars were rewarded for their improved play when they took advantage of a Carter Gray turnover inside the Star's blueline. Matt Cassidy and Tyler Kearns executed a perfect two-on-one break as Cassidy waited for Anger to commit then fired a quick tape-to-tape pass to Kearns who one-timed a shot past a helpless Ben Thomas (W, 9-4-1) in the Rockets net. It was a textbook two-on-one rush and the nicest goal of the night.

The Stars continued their improved play throughout the second period. The Rockets were guilty on several occasions of not moving their feet and allowed the Stars to change the momentum of the game. The Stars tied the game at 2-2 at 5:30 capitalizing on some defensive breakdowns in the Rockets' zone. Once Bobby Cook trapped two Rockets defenders chasing him on a turnaround shot on Thomas, an unmarked Brad Martin had no problems beating Coulter Cahill to the rebound in front of the Rockets goal to score the tying goal.

The deciding goal of the game was set-up with the Stars getting into penalty trouble early in the third. Cory Bornais (slashing) and Carl Wilson (hooking) were sent to the box on the same play giving the Rockets a two-man advantage for a two full minutes. Patrick Easter had two excellent opportunities to break the tie early in the power-play but missed a wide on an open net, then misfired on his second opportunity.

The Stars penalty killers settled down and it looked as if they were going to escape unharmed until Beauchamp (pictured) jumped on a rebound at the side of the Stars net from an Anger point shot to score the game-winner with just two seconds left in the double power-play.

Coutts was pulled for an extra attacker in the final 39 seconds but the Stars failed to get a shot on Thomas.

While the Rockets went three for five on the power play, the Stars were 0 for 4 against the Rockets' penalty killing, which is ranked third in the 26-team GOJHL. The Rockets have not allowed a power play goal in their last 14 short-handed situations, their longest success streak of the season.

The win was the Rockets' third in as many tries against the Stars this season, and 13^th in the last 14 meetings between the two clubs.

Statistically, the Rockets held a wide advantage in the game. They outshot the Stars 49-28 and out-chanced their opponents 23-15. The Rockets once again dominated the faceoff circle winning 47 and losing just 30 draws for a 61.0% advantage. Greenside, the Rockets' top faceoff specialist, had another outstanding night with a 21-6 record for 77.7%.

The Rockets' top unit of Greenside centering Beauchamp and Kraig Wright had another stellar evening. The trio scored twice and combined for 20 shots on goal, the most by a Rockets forward line in a game this season. Wright had 11 shots and Beauchamp added seven, including five in the third period.

Both Thomas and Coutts had exceptional games in their respective nets. Thomas made 26 saves for his third straight win, while Coutts stopped 46 of 49 shots faced. Both clubs' defensive coverage was rather porous at times, forcing Thomas and Coutts to contend with numerous odd-man rushes.

The game was once again highlighted by the superb play of sophomore Secco, who was used freely by Rockets head coach Mike Bondy in several different situations. Secco centered his own line with rookies Mitch McNeill and Justin Fraser and was also double shifted along with the Easter brothers. He led all Rockets in penalty killing shifts and along with McCombe gave the Rockets a very dangerous all-forward power-play unit. Secco was a defensive specialist during the game and made life miserable for the Stars. He spent the evening on furious fore-check and back-check missions, helping to give the Rockets a strong territorial advantage.

The Entertainment Tonight Players of the Game for the Rockets were Thomas, Secco and McCombe.

Prior to the game, Greenside was presented with the Poag Jewelers Rockets Player of the Month award for October.

Click here to go back to news articles