EAST GOSHEN TOWNSHIP—It was the sort of game one would expect to see during the second week of March as opposed to the third week of November. North Penn and Downingtown West demonstrated why they expect to be taken seriously in the weeks and months to come.
For the record, the Knights prevailed 6-2 in the SHSHL-ICSHL crossover matchup Friday night at Ice Line but the affair was much more closely contested than the score would indicate; it was a one-goal game until the closing minutes of the third period.
It was an evening the Knights celebrated their fourth consecutive victory of the young season, but North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis was quick to point out it was most of all an occasion to celebrate high-school hockey.
“I’m so glad we started doing the crossover games this year,” he said. “Downingtown East and C.B. South played last week, Boyertown-Pennridge and us and Downingtown West tonight.
“Heretofore, you don’t see these teams until March. It gives you an opportunity to play them and build high-school hockey in this area.”
Downingtown West coach Brett Mackel, who saw his team drop to 2-2 on the season, echoed those sentiments.
“I like that they added the crossover games this year,” he said. “Especially teams that we usually wouldn’t see until the Flyers Cup. It’s great having different teams come in, especially teams we’re not used to seeing.”
Sam Norton scored two goals for North Penn. Nolan Shingle was also credited with two goals while James Boyle produced a goal and an assist.
Goals from Bryce Schuler and Ryder Jones gave the Whippets a 2-1 lead 7:54 into the second period. Norton tied the game for North Penn with 2:18 left in the period and Boyle’s power-play goal 77 seconds later gave his team the lead for good at 3-2.
“I thought we came out a little flat,” Boyle said, “but then we picked it right back up. Then we got back on them.”
Shingle extended North Penn’s lead on a shot from the deep right wing with 6:29 left in regulation. His second goal was a power-play effort with 4:46 left after the Whippets were accessed a bench minor.
Norton added his second goal of the evening with two minutes to play when he lofted the puck from his own blue line into an empty net.
Aidan Quigley earned the win in goal with 26 saves, many of them achieved with heavy traffic in his field of view.
Mackel felt his team performed well in some areas but was lacking in others.
“We had a lot of penalty kills that we ended up killing off,” he said. We gave up two power-play goals, but other than that our kill was good.
Our goaltender [Justin Adams] gave up two power-play goals but he played pretty well.
“Negatives. We didn’t shoot the puck as much as we needed to tonight. Our defensive zone was pretty sloppy.”
North Penn 1 2 3—6
D-Town West 0 2 0—2
First-period goal: Gabriel Dunn (NP) from Aidan Quigley, 2:48
Second-period goals: Bryce Schuler (DW) from Ryder Jones, :44; Jones (DW) from Reed Surak, 7:54; Sam Norton (NP) from Chase Kelly Del Ricci, 14:42; James Boyle (NP) from Norton and Luke Haftel. 15:59
Third-period goals: Nolan Shingle (MP) from Cole Pluck, 10:31; Shingle (NP) from Boyle and Pluck, 12:16 (pp); Norton (NP) unassisted, 15:00 (en)
Shots: North Penn 35, Downingtown West 28; Saves: Aidan Quigley (NP) 26, Justin Adams (DW) 29
Hockey Happenings 