Squirt AAA

Big third period helps Honeybaked beat Little Caesars, 5-3, in final at Taylor

One big goal turned everything around for Honeybaked 1996 at the MAHA Squirt AAA state finals March 18 at the Taylor Sportsplex.

Thirty-eight seconds into the third period, with their team trailing Little Caesar's 3-1, Aaron Sturos and Tyler Hayes hooked up to score a breakaway goal that gave Honeybaked all the momentum and lead them to a 5-3 win.

Hayes threw a saucer pass across center ice to the area of Sturos, who caught the pass clean and skated in alone on Caesar's goalie Jack Berry. Sturos then pulled off a nice deke to his backhand and slid the puck between the pads of Berry to make it 3-2 with 11:22 to go in the game.

"I think that was the turnaround," Honeybaked coach Pat Marody said. "That was where we got really fired up. (Sturos) does that all the time in practice."

The goal fired the Honeybaked bench up, and turned the momentum in their favor.

Little Caesar's took two penalties within 45 seconds shortly after Sturos' goal, and the 1:15 two-man advantage was long enough for Honeybaked to take a 4-3 lead.

Tournament MVP Roman Gaudet scored the second of his three goals at the 8:42 mark when he camped near the backside goalpost on a 5-on-3 power play, took a pass from Hayes and scored on a shot low to the glove side to tie the game 3-3.

The same play worked 46 seconds later from the opposite side, when Darby Llewellyn re-directed a Jack VanAcker pass into the open half of the net to give Honeybaked its first lead of the game at 4-3 with 7:56 to go.

Caesar's got into another 5-on-3 hole with 5:57 to go, and killed off the 23 second two-man advantage well enough, but Gaudet scored his third goal of the game with :39 left in the power play when he sent a wrister low to the glove side. Van Acker assisted on the goal, which made it 5-3 with 4:36 to go.

Honeybaked goalie Austin Movinski shut the door, including making three big stops with Little Caesar's on his doorstep with a minute left.

Caesar's took a 2-0 lead in the first period before Gaudet would score his first of the night for a 2-1 score going into the first intermission.

Austin Flores scored on a scramble in front 4:39 into the game to make it 1-0 Caesar's. River Rymsha assisted. Vaughn Treppa made it 2-0 when he took a shot from the left-wing circle near the boards that made it through a crowd and Honeybaked goalie Nick Wineka with 3:02 left in the first.

Gaudet scored his first exactly a minute later, when he camped in front and scored on a wrister, with Hayes and Sturos assisting.

Little Caesar's Brian Hubbard notched the only goal of the second period, scoring on a nice deke to his backhand with 2:41 left in the stanza, making it 3-1. Gordon Helmuth and Trevor Murray assisted.

Squirt AAA Notebook

Honeybaked made the finals with a 4-3 win over Belle Tire. Roman Gaudet scored the game-winning goal for Honeybaked, while Jared Gardener scored all three goals for Belle Tire... Little Caesar's notched a 2-1 win over Compuware in the other semifinal, with River Rymsha scoring the game-tying goal with 4:01 left in the game. Gordon Helmuth then scored the game-winner unassisted... Little Caesar's started the tourney with a 2-1 win over Honeybaked. Grant Dukus and Austin Flores scored third-period goals for Caesar's, while Gaudet scored for Honeybaked… In an 8-0 win over Dearborn Brand, Helmuth led Little Caesar's with four goals while Chris Brown had two goals… Belle Tire beat Little Caesars, 4-3, in a shootout as Helmuth, Rymsha and Hunter Kosnik scored for Little Caesars and Damian Chrcek scored all three Belle Tire goals... Honeybaked won 4-2 over Victory Honda behind three goals from Gaudet. Lordanthony Grissom had the other Honeybaked goal… Four different goal scorers - Jacob Turowski, Robbie Beydoun, Cameron Dyde and Austin Alghren - led Compuware, while Jeff Saucerman and Gaudet scored for Honeybaked in a 4-2 win... Compuware had a 6-1 win over Dearborn Brand and a 2-1 loss to Belle Tire. Dyde and Turowski each scored twice for Compuware, and Josh Owings added a goal and assist in the win over Dearborn. Mitch Galea scored the only Compuware goal in the loss to Belle Tire... Belle Tire won three games over Victory Honda, Compuware and Little Caesars. Taylor Bommarito scored the game-winner in the win over Victory Honda, and Chrcek and Dylan Pavelek added goals for Belle Tire. Bommarito also scored the game-winner in the win over Compuware, with Pavelek also scoring for Belle Tire.

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