La Salle and Wyoming Seminary got their respective seasons off to a slam-bam start on Wednesday afternoon.
It took a late goal from the Explorers’ Dean Carvalho to settle things. Carvallo beat Jonah Boles with 3:47 left in the third period to give the hosts a 4-3 win at Hatfield Ice.
Prior to that, the non-league encounter had a bit of everything; an impressive number of goals, an abundance of penalties (19) and no lack of intensity.
For the Explorers, it was their first opportunity to put the pieces together at game speed.
“We have a pretty good corps back,” said La Salle coach Wally Muehlbronner. “The new guys we have, there’s only one, he’s a freshman he fit in pretty well. The other guys are guys that have been jayvee and have been knocking on the door for a number of years.
“They’re here to play hard. I think they know their roles. It’s just a matter of getting everybody in synch and understanding the type of game we need to play to be successful.”
Alex Fusaro gave La Salle a 1-0 8:03 into the first period off a but the Blues’ Yoan Gagnon drew his team even with a power-play goal just 63 seconds after that.
Gagnon would be heard from later, but not before Bill Gregorio put the Explorers back in front with a power-play goal of his own with 2:40 left in the period on a wrist shot along the ice from the top of the slot.
Gagnon, a senior from Sherbrooke, Quebec, scored twice in the second period, once on a power play, to put Wyoming Seminary up 3-2 with 6:52 left in the session.
Alistair St. Hilaire tied the game for La Salle 58 seconds later.
Carvalho’s game-winner came as he was being knocked to the ice in the slot. Bill Carpenter collected the primary assist, his third of the game. The Explorers controlled the third period, outshooting the Blues 9-2 and 29-21 for the game.
Jacob Rossi got the win in goal.
“The third period was out best period,” Muehlbronner said. “I definitely think we got better as we went along. Early on I think we made a lot of not-smart plays, turnover that you can’t be doing, but I think we got it together in the third period. That was our best period. We played I think the way we want to play.”
Wyoming Seminary 1 2 0—3
La Salle 2 1 1—4
First-period goals: Alex Fusaro (L) from Patrick Brace and Julian Tarsi, 8:03; Yoan Gagnon (WS) from Ben Moccia, 9:06 (pp); Bill Gregorio (L) from William Carpenter, 14:20 (pp)
Second-period goals: Gagnon(WS) from Jonah Boles, 1:56; Gagnon (WS) from Heli William DeSeve Elliott. 10:08 (pp) Alistair St. Hilaire (L) from Carpenter, 11:06
Third-period goal: Dean Carvalho (L) from Carpenter and Jacob Rossi. 13:13
Shots: Wyoming Seminary 21, La Salle 29; Saves: Jonah Boles(WS) 25, Jacob Rossi (L) 18
Hockey Happenings 