In the Spirit’s third and final tournament of the year they would travel to Dallas, TX. In a physical weekend and having a short bench, they did very well going 2-2.
In a very rough opening game to start the tournament, the Spirit would take on the Dallas Stars Elite Girls team. At 5:28 of the first period, Gavin Loven found the back of the net off assists from Brooks Kettering and Will Peters to give the Spirit a 1-0 lead. That would be all for the first as the Spirit carried most of the play. Less than 2 minutes into period 2 John Brown and Zahn Werner found Will Peters who split two D and walked around the goalie to tuck the puck in the net for a 2-0 lead. Less than two minutes later the Stars would strike back to cut the lead to 1, but three minutes later Gavin Loven broke free and outskated two defenseman for a shorthanded goal. Late in the second a seeing eye shot from the point by Dallas found the back of the net to cut the lead to 1 again at 3-2. Early in the third period Kettering found Love again who made no mistake and put the puck in the back of the net for the hat trick. This would put the game out of reach as Dallas had a 6 on 4 late in the game but could not convert due to some stingy Spirit defense led by goaltender Cooper Pumphrey. Spirit would win the game 4-2; Pumphrey stopped 21 of 23 shots in a great effort. First star of the game went to Gavin Loven with 3 goals. Second star went to Will Peters with a goal and an assist. Third star went to Brooks Kettering with 2 assists.
In game 2 the Spirit went up against the Texas Jr. Stars. Just over three minutes into the game Wyatt Wirth sent a shot on goal and the goalie made a pad save but coughed up a rebound to a wide open Gage Robb. Robb went to the backhand to put the Spirit up 1-0. At the 7:26 mark on the power play, Kurt Buckman found Wyatt Wirth who again sent a shot on goal. The goalie saved the first shot but was unable to control the rebound as Robb collected the puck and put it in the back of the net for a 2-0 lead. Just over a minute later Gavin Loven would tally on a nice unassisted goal to push the lead to 3. The Spirit were not done there as with just over a minute left in one of the better passing plays all year, John Brown found Robb in the slot. Robb went behind the back to pass it to a wide open Buckman who would score his first of the game to make it 4-0. Rebounds continued in the second period as Will Peters jumped in on the scoring action, collecting a Loven rebound to make it 5-0. At the 9:46 mark, Robb broke in alone and beat the Stars netminder for his first career hat trick. Robb and Wirth would connect again, this time shorthanded as Wirth would tally his first of the game. Just over a minute later Wirth would score again on a nice shot off the post and in for an 8-0 Spirit lead. The 2nd period would come to an end as the Spirit dominated play in every zone. Four minutes into the 3rd period Peters found Loven who would score his second of the game to increase the lead to 9. The Stars would come back to net 2 of their own back to back to make it 9-2. Late in the third off a Megan Fisch pass, Zahn Werner would collect the puck and go down to extend the lead to 8 again. Less than a minute later déjà vu as Werner again went coast to coast to make it 11-2 Spirit. The Stars would tally one more but this game was dominated by the Spirit from the drop of the puck, 11-3 Spirit win. Robb earned the first star of the game with 3 goals and 2 assists. Second star went to Gavin Loven with 2 goals and 1 assist. Third star goes to Zahn Werner who scored twice.
In Game 3 with a chance to secure the number 1 spot for the playoff round the Spirit would meet the PHC Mallards, a AA team out of Austin, TX. The Mallard had their way with the Spirit scoring 8 first period goals in route to a 10-2 win. A great team who moved the puck very well, the Mallards were relentless in the offensive zone. Gavin Loven would notch 2 goals and John Brown and Zahn Werner picked up assists in the loss.
In the semi-final round the Spirit would play the Texas Warriors, yet another AA opponent. In a game where the Spirit had chances to score, a very tough Warriors goalie shut the door. Texas capitalized on their chances in route to a 6-0 win. The Warriors were a good team but this was a game the Spirit wish they could have back as they seemed out of gas with a short bench due to missing two players on the trip. This would end the weekend for the Spirit at 2-2. Not bad as they earned the respect of the teams in Texas.
The Spirit are now 28-5-3 on the year and will travel to St. Louis for playoffs on February 25th as the top seed. They will play the winner of Twin Bridges/Chesterfield.