Brookfield Stars' Rymaszewski sparks 5-2 win over Kenosha

After dropping a 6-1 decision to Madison West on Friday, the Brookfield Stars' John Rymaszewski didn't want to see his birthday spoiled on Saturday. So he scored a hat trick to spark a 5-2 win over Kenosha.

After a scoreless first period, Brookfield/Catholic Memorial took a 3-1 lead into the final period. Rymaszewski had an unassisted, short-handed goal to open the Stars' scoring and then Robby Fosdick assisted on Rymaszewski's second goal, another short-handed score.

Riley Keays - with an assist on Vince Dombrowski - closed out the second period scoring.

"Johnny made two great plays in the second period to get us on the board," assistant coach Matt Shapiro said. "Two short-handed goals, 76 seconds apart, two breakaways created by hard work."

The Stars then doubled up Kenosha in the final period, as Leo Spanuello scored on assists from Fosdick and Keays and Rymaszewski made sure he had a happy birthday with his second unassisted.

Kenosha outshot the Stars, 35-26, but Brookfield/Catholic Memorial had the most of its chances. Senior goalkeeper Logan Sherman made 33 saves in his first game in net for the Stars this season.

This was the Stars' (6-13-1) second to last Classic 8 conference game.

"It was night and day in regards to our boys' effort tonight versus last night," Shapiro said. "For the first time all season we played a real physical game from start to finish. Our forwards put a lot of pressure on their defensemen early by finishing all of our checks. Our defensemen had great gap control throughout the whole game and played big and tough in our defensive zone."

Shapiro was thrilled with the team's effort.

"Our guys stepped up tonight," he said.