EAST ALTON – The Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association put on display their best players in the Class 1A division Monday night.

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The teams in the division were divided into two teams and played an entertaining All-Star Game at East Alton Ice Arena, with the Blue team defeating the Red team 5-3 on the strength of two third-period goals from Belleville's Garrett Dahm.

“They got a couple of tips (for goal) in front and took the lead in the third period on us,” said Granite City coach Daniel Greene, who was the Red team coach for the evening. “It was a fun game; the kids had fun and everyone enjoyed themselves; that's the point of the all-star game, to give the kids a chance to show what they can do.

“There's a lot of skill in this league and they showed it tonight. They had a good time and showed off the talent MVCHA has right now. This is (the talent level) one of the best it's been in a long time, I think. There's a lot of talent and it's fun to watch.”

The Blue team broke loose from a 1-1 tie through two periods to get the win. “The team came out in the third period,” said Blue team coach Mark Douglas of Belleville. “We talked about just keeping it simple and playing your regular hockey game and playing your positions; we came out hard in the third period took it to (Granite City's Grant Jackson, who was in goal for the Red team for the third period); we came out really well in the third period.

“It's a lot of fun for the kids; they really enjoy this game. It's an honor to be in this game and it's fun for me to coach behind the bench. It's a lot fun to see such talent out there on the ice. It's a really good overall experience for everyone.”

Granite City's Riley Brown opened the scoring when he got up-ice, skated in and scored on Belleville's Jordan Douglas at the 6:22 mark of the first of three 17-minute periods to give the Red team a 1-0 lead. As things turned out, that was the only goal of the period.

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The Blue team tied it up with 1:10 left in the second period when East Alton-Wood River's Kaleb Harrop accepted a feed from Highland's Zackary Korte and put the puck past Triad goalie Tommy Petroski to send both teams to the locker rooms tied at 1-1.

Things opened up in the third period when Belleville's Terrance Puribhat scored past Jackson just 2:31 into the session from assists by Highland's Issac Imming and Dahm to give the Blues a 2-1 lead; the lead expanded to 3-1 at 5:41 when Dahm took a feed from Harrop and beat Jackson.

The Reds battled back when Alton's Tanner St. Peters and Bryce Simon teamed up with 5:34 left, Simon finding St. Peters with a pass and St. Peters beating Belleville's Kylah Krause to cut the Blue lead to 3-2; the Blues answered back a couple of minutes later when Dahm and Belleville's Justin Araiza teamed up to find EAWR's Jacob Vassos, who scored past Jackson to make it 4-2. Just 31 seconds later, Triad's Blake Takmajian skated in on Krause and put a shot over her left shoulder to pull the Reds to 4-3.

Dahm sealed the deal for the Blues with 53.3 seconds left when he took a feed from Araiza and scored the game's final goal.

The Blues had 44 shots on goal, while the Reds had 35. Alton's Caleb Currie, Petroski and Jackson each saw a period between the pipes for the Reds, while Douglas, Highland's Hunter Micheletto and Krause each played goal for the Blues.

The Class 1A playoffs will begin later this week, with Belleville and Granite City receiving first-round byes; EAWR will play Triad in the first round, while Alton will take on Highland; both series will be best-of-three. The playoffs in both Class 1A and 2A will run through late February.