By SooToday Staff
SooToday.com
Thursday, February 04, 2010

NEWS RELEASES

ONTARIO HOCKEY LEAGUE

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East wins All-Star Classic in record fashion

By Aaron Bell

Andrew Agozzino has suddenly become a big fan of Stan Butler.

Agozzino, the third-year sniper from the Niagara IceDogs, set an OHL All-Star Game record for most goals when he scored four and added an assist to lead the Eastern Conference to a 17-10 win over the Western Conference on Wednesday in Kingston.

Agozzino credited Butler - the GM and head coach of the Brampton Battalion and Team East - for putting Agozzino together on a line with Ottawa 67's teammates Tyler Toffoli and Cody Lindsay.

"Stan's a genius it looks like," said Agozzino, who bettered the previous all-star record of three goals set by Scott Barney of the Peterborough Petes in 1999 and tied by Hunter Tremblay of the Barrie Colts in 2007, and matched by Cody Hodgson of the Brampton Battalion and Justin DiBenedetto of the Sarnia Sting last season. "There was instant chemistry with us three."

The teams also combined to set a new record for the most goals scored in a game. The previous high was 22 goals set in 2007 in Saginaw.

"It was a lot of fun," Agozzino said. "I played with a lot of great players out there and got to play on the same line as a couple of special players so it was a lot of fun."

Team West captain Ryan Ellis of the Windsor Spitfires predicted that the Western Conference would win the game after losing four straight to the East. Agozzino said that the Eastern Conference squad was determined to extend their winning streak.

"Playing in the East - we're a bit of an underdog with the guys in the west always thinking they're better," Agozzino said. "We didn't let anybody know but we took that to heart. We were playing to win."

Ethan Werek of the Kingston Frontenacs scored a goal and added a pair of assists in the win and said that it was special to play the game on home ice in the K-Rock Centre.

"It was an amazing experience," said Werek, who scored two goals in the Eastern Conference's win in Windsor last year. "Our fans were great and really supported the guys. It was great playing with some really good guys and it was a lot of fun."

The East outshot the West 55-50 for the second highest shot total in game history. The teams combined for 109 shots in 2007. Werek said that it was difficult to stay focused with all of the goals being scored.

"You just have to remind yourself that you want to compete hard but you don't really want to run anybody over," Werek said. "It was a lot of fun. It's a real skilled game and the fans really got their money's worth tonight."

Zack Torquato of the Erie Otters was the Team West player of the game after scoring three goals and adding two assists to tie the single game record for most points in a game along with Agozzino.

"Any time you can come to these events, it's a pretty cool experience," said Torquato, who didn't get a point when he played in the All-Star Game as a sophomore in 2007 in Saginaw. "I really wanted to come to Kingston for this event and put on a good show. It was a great experience."

Cody Lindsay and Tyler Toffoli of the Ottawa 67's each produced five-point games as did Alex Hutchings and Stefan Della Rovere of the Barrie Colts. Toffoli's five points were all assists to also tie an All-Star Game record for most assists in one game set previously by Dan Tessier of the 67's in 1999 and Eric Lindros of the Oshawa Generals in 1991. With five points, Hutchings has seven career points over three straight All-Star Games as does Colts' defenceman Alex Pietrangelo. Both Hutchings and Pietrangelo match career points records set by Steven Stamkos of the Sarnia Sting (07,08), Justin Papineau of the Belleville Bulls (98,99,00), and former Colt Bryan Little (05,06,07).

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West takes OHL skills competition

By Aaron Bell

John Moore said that the practice - and extra work - was worth it.

Moore assaulted his family garage with thousands of slap shots while growing up and on Tuesday, he put up the hardest shot in the OHL Skills Competition and Three-on-Three Game on Tuesday, helping the Western Conference to an 18-15 win over the Eastern Conference.

Moore said that he caused so much damage to his garage as a youngster that his parents made him paint it several times.

“My garage at home could probably tell the story,” said Moore, who blasted a pair of 98 mile per hour missiles and edged Jacob Muzzin of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and Zack Torquato of the Erie Otters, who both reached 96 miles per hour.

“I was always shooting pucks when I was growing up and I still like to do it. I’ve had to repaint it a couple of times already.”

Moore also practiced his shot this past summer and said that a friend’s father that is a police officer brought out his radar gun one day and clocked Moore’s blast at 98 miles per hour.

“Hopefully I can get it up to triple digits sometime,” Moore said. “No promises but it would be pretty cool.”

Jesse Blacker of the Owen Sound Attack won the fastest skater segment with a fast lap time of 15.05 seconds. He completed his lap 2/100ths of a second faster than Alex Hutchings of the Barrie Colts. Devante Smith-Pelly of the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors won the shooting accuracy event when he knocked out three targets in eight shots and Ethan Werek of the Kingston Frontenacs won the relay race, edging Kingston native Taylor Hall of the Spitfires after the Western Conference won the four-man relay.

The teams tied the breakaway relay with four goals each and then Team West took the win with an 11-7 win in the three-on-three game.

Frontenacs’ goaltender Tyler Beskorowany said that he enjoyed playing in the event but that it was stressful - especially facing the offensively-talented Western Conference squad.

“You have to make a big save time after time,” Beskorowany said. “If you do, you look great but if you don’t it’s another one up on the board.”

Beskorowany said that the East is looking forward to rebounding in the game on Wednesday (7:00 p.m. Eastern on Rogers Sportsnet) and keeping the East’s four-game winning streak alive.

“Tomorrow is another day and hopefully we get a little bit more luck in the game,” Beskorowany said. “It was fun - I had a blast.”

Meanwhile, the Western Conference stars are determined to put an end to that streak and get their first all-star win since 2005.

“Getting all the best players out on the ice at the same time was a lot of fun,” Moore said. “Hopefully we can ruin the East’s streak and bring the win back to the West.”

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