The Esmark Stars AAA Hockey Midget teams (18U, 16U and 15U) returned home to the friendly confines of Pittsburgh Ice Arena in New Kensington, PA for action this past weekend, Feb. 20-21.

The U15 Stars welcomed the Philadelphia Jr. Revolution to Pittsburgh and swept the two-game weekend series, by scores of 5-0 and 3-0.

On Saturday, the Stars skated to a 5-0 shutout win, as goaltender Andrew Krakora turned aside all of the Revolution shots he faced to get the win and shutout.

On Sunday, the Stars continued their defensive dominance and collected a 3-0 shutout win.  This time goaltender Ian Amaranto slammed the door shut on the Revolution, earning both the win and shutout in goal. 

The weekend sweep improves the U15 Stars overall record to (28-20-2-1).

The U16 Stars dropped a 4-1 decision to the nation's #6 ranked (myHockeyrankings.com) New Jersey Rockets on Saturday morning. Joey Pankowski scored the lone Stars goal on an assist to Demian Tychenko. Nikita Volski, stopped 36 of 40 shots he faced, but suffered the loss in goal.

The loss to the Rockets drops the U15 Stars overall record to (28-21-2-1).

The U18 Stars welcomed the Buffalo Jr Sabers to town and were  swept in the weekend series, 4-2 and 2-1.

On Saturday, the Stars squandered a two-goal first period lead as the Sabres roared back to score the final four goals and grab a 4-2 win.  Dominic Dezort and Ed Pazo scored the Stars goals.  JohnCamp, Zachary Stoner, Shane Miller and Regan Kallis picked up assists.  Connor Strobel suffered the loss in goal despite stopping 31 of 34 shots he faced between the pipes.  Th Sabres added their fourth goal on an empty net.

On Sunday, Adis Ultanbekov collected the Star's lone goal, on assists from Brayden Morgan and Yahor Ramanau, to knot the score at 1-1 midway through the second period. But the Sabres would collect the game winning goal only seconds later and then hold on through a scoreless third for the 2-1 win.  Nathan Dickey stopped 28 of 30 shots he faced, but suffered the loss in goal.

The weekend sweep by the Sabres drops the U18 Stars overall record to (36-16-4-0).

The U12 Esmark Stars enjoyed a weekend off.