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U18 Stars Capture NAPHL 18U AAA Playoff Crown

By DLG, 02/20/18, 11:58PM EST

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Esmark Claims 18U Dixon Cup

The Esmark Stars U18 AAA squad defeated the Tampa Scorpions, 5-2,  in the Championship game of the North American Prospects Hockey League (NAPHL) to capture the league's 2017-18 Playoff Championship and the coveted Dixon Cup.

The Stars, seeded seventh in the playoffs, opened the tournament dropping a tough 2-1 decision to the Rocky Mountain Rough Riders, seeded second in the NAPHL and ranked number 18 by MyHockeyRankings.com.  Justin Adamski scored the lone Stars goal early in the third period to cut the Rough Riders lead to the 2-1 final score.  Parker Brown and Ethan Webb each picked up an assist, but the Stars were unable to find the equalizer in the closely fought battle.  Nico Pidro stopped 14 of 16 shots but suffered the loss in goal.  The final shots ended 16-16.

The Stars returned to the ice to face the playoff number three seed, and 21st nationally ranked, Sioux Falls Jr. Stampede.  In a must win situation, to have any chance of advancing to the Dixon Cup semi-finals, the Stars responded with an outstanding performance and skated to a 6-2 win.  After seeing the Stampede convert a turnover into a 1-0 Sioux Falls lead, the Stars responded with three goals in a little less than three minutes late in the first period to grab a 3-1 lead.  Nick Caretta opened the scoring for the Stars, with assists from Sam Stites and Oldrich Virag.  Wes Scott scored the second goal with assists from Andrew Jacobs and Nathan Hilzendeger.  Andrew Murphy completed the first period scoring and netted the eventual game winner with assists to Virag and Caretta.  After a scoreless second period, the Stars would score a pair of goals in the third period to stretch their lead to 5-2.  Parker Brown scored the fourth goal with assists going to Justin Adamski and JT Schmizzi.  Caretta, would score his second goal of the game and the Stars fifth goal, with Murphy and Virag getting assists.  After a late Sioux Falls goal cut the Stars lead to 5-2, Caretta would complete the hat-trick and pick up his third goal of the game with assists from Alex Singley and Hilzendeger.  Ty Barkley earned the win in goal, stopping 18 of the 20 shots he faced.  For the game, the Stars outshot the Stampede 34 to 20.

The Stars returned to the ice for the final round-robin game and squared off with the playoffs number six seeded Elite AAA 18U squad out of Connecticut knowing that they needed a win to advance to the NAPHL Playoff semi-finals.  After a scoreless first period, Nick Caretta continued to show his hot hand and got the Stars on the board first with about three minutes remaining in the second period.  Andrew Murphy and Oldrich Virag earned assists.  Caretta would push the lead to 2-0, scoring his fifth goal of the playoffs and second goal of the game early in the third period.  Virag and Murphy each picked up their second assist of the game.  Elite would cut the lead to 2-1 with a goal just over the midway point of the third period, but the Stars defense and goaltender Nico Pidro would close the door and the Stars would get the win.  For the game Pidro stopped 17 of the 18 shots he faced.  The Stars would outshoot the Elite, ranked 52 nationally, 23-18 for the game.

The win moved the Stars into the semi-finals where they would face the 2017-18 18U NAPHL regular season champion and number one seeded Car Shield AAA out of St. Louis, MO.  The Stars would get off to a solid start as defenseman Blake Rossi would score a pair of first period goals to push the Stars to a 2-0 lead.  Antonio Binotto got the assist on the first goal and JT Schmizzi the assist on the second Rossi goal.  The Stars would push their first period lead to 3-0 as Ethan Webb tallied a power play goal with an assist from Oldrich Virag.  The Stars extended their lead to 4-0 as Nick Caretta scored his sixth goal of the Playoffs early in the second period.  Billy Rapone and Tomas Krukovski picked up assists.  Car Shield, ranked ninth nationally, would score a pair of third period goals to cut the lead to 4-2, but goaltender Ty Barkley would close the door, stopping 18 or 20 Car Shield shots, and clinching a spot in the Championship game for the Stars.  Overall the Stars would outshoot Car Shield 33-20 for the game.

In the Championship game, the Stars would meet up with the Tampa Scorpions, seeded fifth for the playoffs and #45 nationally, who earned their berth in the finals by skating by Rocky Mountain 2-0 in the other semi-final.  The theme for the Stars would be redemption as Tampa entered the championship game with a pair of wins over the Stars earlier in the year as they defeated the Stars 3-2 back in October at the HoneyBaked / Compuware Tournament in Detroit and 4-3 in overtime in league action in Blaine, MN, in December.

Tampa would open the scoring in the Championship game with a power play goal on a crazy scramble in front of the Stars net midway through period one.  But Oldrich Virag would get the Stars even with a goal a little over three minutes later.  Andrew Murphy and Andrew Jacobs picked up assists.  Nick Caretta would strike again less than a minute later with his seventh goal of the playoffs to put the Stars in front 2-1.  Murphy and Ethan Webb earned assists on the goal.  Tampa would knot the game at 2-2 less than a minute into the second period off of a 2 on 2 rush.  But Alex Singley would score what turned out to be the game winning goal with a little over three minutes remaining in the second period off a feed from Nathan Hilzendeger.   The third period belonged to Oldrich Virag as he completed the hat-trick and closed the scoring with a pair of goals for Esmark and clinched the first ever U18 NAPHL Playoff Championship.  Caretta and Sam Stites picked up assists on the first goal and Murphy grabbed his third assist of the game on the final Virag goal.  Nico Pidro earned the win in goal, stopping 24 of 26 Tampa shots.  For the game, the Stars outshot the Scorpions 30-26.

"I don't think a coaching staff could be prouder of their team than we are at this moment," said Stars U18 head coach Dave Kosick.  "We had as tough a draw as could be imagined and had no room for error to achieve our goal."

"The guys responded to each step of our pursuit and played great hockey against some of the top teams in the country," Kosick added.

Last season, Esmark captured the Dixon Cup in the U16 division earning the first NAPHL Playoff Championship for the Stars program.  The U18 Stars had advanced to the NAPHL Championship game twice before in 2012 and 2014.