Squirt #3 getting its skate under it

Just realized with all the running around with Squirt #2, I have failed to comment thus far on how well Squirt #3 has been doing.

While they are yet to capture their first win of the season, the Jaguars Squirt #3 squad has posted a time -- in their second game of the season -- and has been in every game thus far -- losing, most recently, 2-0 after making their second trek of the season to North Shore Ice Arena.

Given the mix of kids and previous playing levels represented on this team -- from higher-level travel squads down to a group of kids playing their first fall season of travel hockey -- it has been interesting to watch these kids merge into a team so quickly. Their defense has been strong, their passing has been consistent and now all they need is for more members of the team to gain the confidence that they can score on a regular basis, no matter who is lining up across the center circle from them.

Jaguar Squirt #3 will be on the ice at Inwood on Thursday night and it promises to be another entertaining hockey game. Who needs the NHL with there is play going on in the NIHL? Not fans of Jaguar Squirt #3, that's for sure.

Squirt 2 brings home hardware, experience from South Bend

Jaguar Squad finishes as runner-up in Consolation Bracket

The members of Squirt 2 came away from the South Bend Cup tournament the first weekend in October with medals around their necks.

They also came away with something much more important.

Over the course of three days, the Jaguars squad played four games – compiling a 2-2 record en route to a runner-up finish in a hastily created Consolation Bracket – and garnered all the benefits that playing together that often in a young season can provide. Through the proding of the coaching staff and some hard work on their part, the members of Squirt 3 saw their positioning, passing and play in front of the net on both ends of the ice improve.

Coach Rob Sterioti voiced his hope and expectation to the team that those lessons learned will pay off as the team returns to seeding-round play in the Red Tier of the Silver Level of the Squirt Division in Northern Illinois Hockey League Play.

GAME 1: Novi IceCats 4, Jaguars 2

The Jaguars actually got off to a slow start as they opened the tournament on Rink 2 of the Ice Box in South Bend, Ind., although it didn’t seem like that was going to be the case in the early going against the Novi IceCats.

Squirt 2 actually jumped out to an early lead when Max Sterioti tallied the Jaguars’ first goal of the tournament just 3:35 into the opening stanza. Blake Brenczewski was credit with the assist on a play that actually developed at the defensive end of the ice.

The Novi IceCats, who would end up as the lone representative of the Jaguars’ bracket in semi-final play on Sunday, evened the score a little more than three minutes later, however, when Alex Prange converted on a Sotiris Tsilimingras assist with 5:18 left in the period. The Ice Cats then claimed their first lead of the game at the 1:22 mark of the period, as Tsilimingras found the back of the net off a Nathan Erskine assist.

Not to be outdone, however, Sterioti responded with his second goal of the game to even the score at 2 just :36 seconds later. Liam Jenkins was credited with the assist.

Having tallied 8 saves in the first stanza, Jaguar goalie Kenny Zschach duplicated the 8-save performance in the second period, helping keep the score tied until the 3:38 mark of the middle period. It was then that Erskine found the net himself, scoring on a Kyle Kelley assist.

The Jaguars, in turn, peppered IceCats’ goalie Duncan Lowes with seven shots in the period, but could not manage the equalizer. Another four shots met the goalie instead of the net in the third period, which saw its only goal scored at the 6:49 mark, when Anthony Hakim added some insurance for Novi, stretching the score to 4-2 on an assist from Kelley.

Zschach ended the game with 18 saves, while Lowest had 13 for the IceCats.

GAME 2: Jaguars 5, Oakridge Aeros 4
An early start in the Eastern time zone did not seem to hamper the Jaguars in their second game of the tournament – although it did take them some time to get warmed up.

The Jaguars – most of whom left the hotel before 4:30 a.m. Chicago time in order to arrive at the Ice Box on time – actually fell behind the Aeros by two goals before the end of the first period. Blake Foster got the scoring started for the Canadian Minor Atom “A” team, converting on a Eddie Burlock assist with 2:15 to play in the period. Jacob Sirovyak stretched the lead to two with just 21.8 second to play. Callum Noonan was credit with the assist.

The second period, however, belonged to the Jaguars – who used the middle 12:00 to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 4-2 lead through a combination of strong passing on offense, solid defense and some spectacular play by Kenny Zschach between the pipes.

Liam Jenkins made the first dent in the Aeros’ armor less than halfway through the second period, scoring on an assist credited to a number not on the Jaguars’ roster. Max Sterioti followed that up with the equalizer less than two minutes later, scoring off a Kevin Stewart assist at the 4:41 mark of the period.

The Jaguars snagged their first lead of the game at the 2:13 mark, as Sterioti replicated his scoring effort, this time with the help of Owen Rossi. Joey Guldan added the final goal of the period on an unassisted tally with :52 to play.

The Aeros, however, proved they were not about to go away quietly, tightening the score to 4-3 just :53 into the final stanza. Foster scored the goal off an assist from Riley Sanders.

Insurance for the Jaguars came at the 5:06 mark not for the Geico gecko, but from Blake Brenczewski, who scored on an unassisted effort.

The need for the insurance policy came 95 second later, when Connor Currado cut the lead again to one, at 5-4, with 3:31 to play. Ethan Kelly had the assist on what would prove to be the final goal of the game.

The 5-4 win evened the Jaguars’ mark in the South Bend Cup tournament at 1-1-0.

GAME 3: Jaguars 7, Lansing Senators 1

The bench alongside the Notre Dame Hockey Team’s home ice was so tall some of the Jaguars had to jump up in order to sit on it when they were between shifts, but it did not take the Jaguars on the ice long to realize the nets were the same size.

The spacious surroundings of the Lefty Smith Rink at the University of Notre Dame may, however, have been a slight distraction as the Jaguars began their third game of the tournament, this one against the Lansing Senators. It was the Senators who shook off the awe inspired by the surroundings first, tallying the game’s opening goal with 10:03 left in the first period. The shot came off the stick of Ethan Bond and was assisted by Blake Agnew.

The sight of a puck passing goaltender Kenny Zschach was enough to get the Jaguars’ minds back on the business at hand and, from that point forward, the Jaguars were the dominant team. It was Liam Jenkins who got the score back to all-square at 1-1 before the first period concluded, scoring the equalizer with 6:16 to play.

The first lead of the game for the Jaguars was supplied by Max Sterioti, who began his pursuit of a hat trick with a goal, assisted by Owen Rossi, at the 9:18 mark for the second period. His second goal – an unassisted one -- came on the power play with 4:53 left in the period.

The Jaguars continued to stretch the lead in the third period, beginning at the 9:38 mark when Blake Brenczewski converted on a Lukas Bomba assist to make the score 4-1.

With 9:11 to play, Sterioti completed his hat trick in highlight reel fashion. After being pulled down while breaking across the Senators’ blue line, Sterioti found himself standing alone on the shamrock emblem in the middle of the ice, preparing for a penalty shot against the Senators’ goaltender. He skated alone toward the far end of the ice, made a move or two and then fired the puck soundly in to the back of the net to make it 5-1 Jaguars.

Joey Guldan made it 6-1 about 90 seconds later with an unassisted tally and Ryan Louthan capped the scoring, with an assist from Rossi, with 5:46 remaining in the game.

The win, which lifted the Jaguars to 2-1-0 in the tournament, guaranteed the Jaguars would be playing on Sunday. The only remaining question was whether that would be in a semi-final game, as the Jaguars had expected, or within some other scenario that was being sketched out by tournament organizers as the Jaguars played.

With four teams, including three in the opposite bracket, finishing with 3-0 records, the Jaguars were, instead, relegated to the consolation championship game against the Oakridge Aeros.

CONSOLATION CHAMPIONSHIP: Oakridge Aeros 6, Jaguars 3

This time, a slow start was too much for the Jaguars to overcome.

As they had done in the first game against the Aeros, the Jaguars found themselves trailing the Canadian squad 2-0 as the horn sounded to end the opening period… and the reason was Ethan Kelly.

Kelly scored an unassisted goal just :28 into the game, and followed it up with his second tally of the game with 1:06 to play in the period. Connor Currado and Antony Dutz were credited with assists on Kelly’s second marker.

Receiving more help from Dutz, along with Eddie Burlock, just 1:29 into the second period allowed Kelly to complete his hat trick before the Jaguars even got on the board.

The Jaguars, however, cut the score to 3-1 with 7:49 to play in the middle stanza, as Owen Rossi scored an unassisted goal.

The Aeros responded twice before the end of the period, however, to stretch the margin to 5-1 after the first 24 minutes. The goals were scored by Jacob Sirovyak, on an assist by Nicholas Mazza, at 5:31, and Connor Currado with 2:09 to play.

As the third period began, the Jaguars showed there was no quit in the team. Black Brenczewski scored with 7:48 to play to cut the lead to 5-2, and Liam Jenkins added a goal at the 4:58 mark to cut the score to 5-3 and send a charge through the crowd of Jaguar parents in the stands.

The Jaguars, however, would get no closer and, in fact, gave up a late goal to Hunter Yeo, which brought the score to the 6-3 final.

The loss dropped the Jaguars to a 2-2-0 final tournament record and set them home with silver medals.

 

There’s something different about you

Jaguars suffer 3-0 loss at hands of Vikings

At the start of their game Tuesday night, Coach Rob Sterioti had Jaguar Squirt #2 try something different.

Something, as it turns out, was also different at the end of the game.

In exact opposite fashion to the season-opening victory, the Jaguars dropped a 3-0 decision to Vikings #2 on the Championship Rink at Arctic Ice in Orland Park. The loss dropped the Jaguars, who had opened Saturday with a 3-0 win over the Irish, to 1-1-0 in seeding round play in the Red Tier of the Silver Level in the Squirt Division of the Northern Illinois Hockey League.

Prior to the game, Sterioti had instructed his players to set up during the first period a bit differently than they usually would. The hope, Sterioti said, was to tire out the Vikings and, effectively, shorten the game to two periods, allowing the Jaguars to have more stamina at the end of the contest.

The plan, however, of having just one forward give chase in the offensive zone, while the other forwards remained at the blue line and the defense set up shop at the center line, served to minimize the Jaguars’ offensive chances. It did not, however, minimize the Vikings’ offensive chances as much as Sterioti had hoped.

Instead, by the time the first period expired and the Jaguars were ready to resume their normal offensive program, the visitors were trailing 2-0. The Vikings had jumped to the early lead with a goal approximately halfway through the opening stanza off the stick of Tyler Derickson. Derickson was assisted by Matthew Cox, who also assisted on the Vikings’ second goal. That tally was scored by Brendan Joy with less than a minute to play in the period.

Once the Jaguars returned to their standard three-man rush, with offensive support from the defensive specialists on the ice, they seemed to have trouble getting back on track and mounted only a few strong offensive charges.  Nevertheless, the Jaguars played the Vikings nearly even through the final 22 minutes

The lone tally in the final two periods came with 1:33 to play in the middle stanza, when the Viking’s Vinny Felice converted on an assist from Brett Rudny. The goal lifted the margin to three, where it would remain until the final buzzer sounded.

While no official saves totals were tallied, Kenny Zschach posted another strong performance between the pipes for the Jaguars.

Jaguars Squirt #2 will next be in action at 2:20 p.m. EDT Friday afternoon, when they open play in the South Bend Cup tournament in South Bend, Ind.