In some aspects, mid-January is the most difficult part of the high-school hockey season. The postseason is still a month away and the players are feeling the grind of the long campaign, particularly if they also play club hockey.
Amidst this atmosphere, Pennridge and Central Bucks South squared off Thursday night at Hatfield Ice in a SHSHL National matchup with potentially long-range implications.
It was the Titans who ground out 4-3 win. Ryan Frey and Jeff Kvecher scored goals 40 seconds apart early in the third period to give South its 11th victory of the season against five setbacks (11-2 in divisional play).
The Rams, who are listed fifth in the newest Class AA Flyers Cup rankings, slipped to 10-4 overall and 9-4 in the division.
It marked the second time the Titans have bested the Rams; the first was a 5-4 overtime win on November 7. In Kvecher’s view, the caliber of the opponent made Thursday’s win particularly satisfying.
“That’s a tough team,” he said of Pennridge. “They put a lot of pressure on us. They have some great guys that can wheel and we did a great job of shutting them down.
“We also sent a message to the league, and the Flyers Cup, that we’re a top team.”
Thursday game came 72 hours after many of the participants completed a full weekend of club tournament play, a circumstance that required an enhanced level of focus.
“Everyone had to dig deep,” Kvecher said. “Everyone was tired, everyone’s legs were tired. We dug deep and we were able to get the win.”
The Titans once more had to come from behind. Pennridge’s Nolan Shaw delivered the only goal of the first period, a power-play effort 3:51 after the opening faceoff that came while South’s Joe Slobodrian was serving a two-minute sentence.
Kvecher and Slobodrian scored power-play goal two-and-a-half minutes apart to give South the lead 5:09 onto the second period before Ryan Burke tied the game for the Ram three-and-a-half minutes later.
Ryan Frey put the Titans in front for good 49 seconds into the final period. Kvecher extended his team’s lead just 40 seconds later and the insurance proved valuable and necessary; Josh Kelly scored for Pennridge with 8:14 remaining. But Jake Matkowski in the South net and his mates in front of him stood tall the rest of the way.
Josh Sklar was in charge behind the Titan bench Thursday night, replacing the absent Shaun McGinty. He said his team had the energy it needed in the third period.
“They definitely had a little more spring in their step, a little more energy,” he said. “They brought the energy all game long but toward the end [two third-period goals] pushes the boys to finish the game out.”
The Titan had a 47-25 edge in shots. Pennridge coach Jeff Montagna says the Titans’ up-tempo style regularly gives his team problems.
“C.B. South is a bad matchup for us,” he said. “They’ve always been a bad matchup for us. They’re deep, they’re good defensively.
“I say this every time we play them; they’re going to get a lot of shots on us by design … We changed defensively how we were going to do things. I thought we did a really good job defensively keeping pucks out of dangerous area. But, they’re a tough team to play.”
Pennridge 1 1 1—3
C.B. South 0 2 2—4
First-period goal: Nolan Shaw (P) from Nick Young and Landon Bishop, 3:51 (pp)
Second-period goals: Jeff Kvecher (CBS) from Ryan Frey and Joe Slobodrian, 2:34 (pp); Slobodrian (CBS) from Frey, 5:09; Ryan Burke (P) from Shane Dachowki and Jared Garber, 8:42.
Third-period goals: Frey (CBS) from Dominic Gibson and Jamison Crouch, :49; Kvecher (CBS) from Peter Herring and Ryan Montagna, 1:29 (); Josh Kelly (P) from James Rush and Dachowski, 8:46
Shots: Pennridge 25, C.B. South 47; Saves: Jacob Winton (P) 43, Jake Matkowski (CBS) 22
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