Hornets, stars take center stage

Two pieces of history were made last week on Metro All-Star Game Sunday.

The first piece was during the Hornets' sled hockey game against the Blackhawks alumni team. The Hawks played tough, jumping out to an early 3-1 lead in the second period. The Hornets looked to be on their way to their first defeat against an able-bodied team in 4 years.

But then the Hornets began to bombard the Blackhawks with shot after shot and came back to tie it 3-3 with just under 10 minutes left.

Over the next three minutes the teams took turns trying to break the tie, but when push came to shove the Hornets ended up scoring late in the third period to take the lead 4-3, and it stood the rest of the game.

"We're old," said Ken Mackey. "We just ran out of gas, but hats off to these kids, they played a great game."

The Hornets continue their undefeated streak for one more game and hope that they can keep it going for a while longer.

Before the Hornets game, the Metro Northwest all-stars played the Metro North all-stars.

The Northwest had never beaten the North, but with the help of some key goals and some stellar goaltending, the North was able to hang around.

"Our basic strategy was to have five guys on offense," said coach Tim Mattila of Rockford.

In the first period, Rockford goalie Nathan Tuttle kept the game scoreless 0-0 and shut down the North's scoring threats with 7 saves.

In the second period, the Northwest jumped out to a 2-0 advantage with goals from Rockford's Trevor Edwards and Tim Santopoalo. However the North capitalized on two scoring chances to tie it up 2-2 just before the end of the second period.

The third period started the same way as the second, in that the Northwest scored 2 early goals to jump out ahead 4-2 thanks to another pair from Jonathon Feuillerat and game MVP Jared Ippolito. The North added another goal with just under 10 minutes to go to bring it to 4-3, but Ippolito scored his second goal of the game with just under three minutes to go to seal the deal.

The North scored late in the game, but couldn't tie it and the Northwest took down the North 5-4. Fremd's Patrick Fitton had 11 saves in the period.

"We played a great game," Mattila said. "We were very postionally sound."

Scholastic Cup:

Buffalo Grove/Wheeling 2, Fremd 0: Buffalo Grove/Wheeling (BGW) came out with Kevin Pabst and Andrew Pawlak both scoring goals in the first period, and it proved to be all they would need as goalie Brett Carey made 15 saves.

"We just played really well from the start," said BGW coach Bob Wagner.

Buffalo Grove (1-1) will have a playoff game against Elgin-Larkin on Wednesday at the Buffalo Grove Ice Arena before heading back to Metro Scholastic Cup action Friday against Rockford.

Fremd (1-1) will try to avoid a two game losing streak when they play Rockford on Wednesday at 7:40 at Hoffman Estates.

Rockford 10, PREP 0: Prospect/Rolling Meadows/Elk Grove/Palatine (PREP) was overmatched by Rockford on Wednesday.

"They came out and scored 3 really quick goals and put us in a hole," said PREP coach Bob Sibik.

PREP couldn't dig themselves out of that hole and the more they tried, the worse it got.

PREP (0-2) has been dominated so far these playoffs, being outscored 15-0 in two games. They will look to get some goals on the board and get their first win against BGW on Sunday, Feb. 10.

Founder's Cup:Œ

Huntley 4, CHS 3:

Conant/Hoffman Estates/Schaumburg dropped to 0-3 in the Founder's Cup as they lost another close game to Huntley. In 3 games CHS has lost by a combined 4 goals.

"We are just not playing 3 periods," coach John Conenna said.

With an 0-3 record, CHS is mathematically out of the Founder's Cup, so Conenna says he hopes they don't have to break out the golf clubs early.

"Now we are playing for pride," Conenna said. "We're playing the role of spoiler."

CHS will look to start that role against Carmel on Sunday, Feb. 10 at West Meadows Ice Arena.

Hersey will be taking on Carmel this Sunday at 2 p.m. at West Meadows Ice Arena.

All-staters: A special congratulations for three all-state players from the Northwest conference: forward Kevin Pabst (Buffalo Grove/Wheeling); forward Jared Ippolito (Rockford); defenseman Marius Berman (Buffalo Grove/Wheeling).