HATFIELD TOWNSHIP—It was not a good night to be a goaltender. Pennridge and Central Bucks East played 51 minutes of up-and-down hockey Thursday night in a game that a saw saw 83 shots, 10 goals, and two hat tricks before the Rams prevailed 6-4 in at Hatfield Ice.
The win solidified the bulk of the SHSHL National Division playoff bracket. Pennridge (13-4, 8-2 in the division) clinched the second seed and earned a bye into the semifinals.
The Patriots (8-8-1, 4-5-1) will be seeded sixth and will face third seed Pennsbury in a first-round game next Wednesday. Neshaminy and Central Bucks South will face each other in next Wednesday’s other first round game.
Pennridge’s Kevin Pico and C.B. East’s Corey Cosick led the way for their respective sides. Pico delivered three goals himself and assisted on a fourth, while Cosick tallied three goals of his own. Both players had plenty of open ice to work in, albeit at a moderate tempo; there was little physicality on display in part because many of the Rams and Patriots are club teammates.
“I think we’re better when teams don’t play physical,” Pico said. “(The Patriots) are our friends, so we’re not going to play as physical as usual and they’re not going to play as physical.”
Charlie Keiser and Pico traded goals in the first period. Cosick gave East a 2-1 lead 67 seconds into the second frame and shortly thereafter Pennridge coach Jeff Montagna used his timeout to deliver a motivational address.
“I didn’t like the way they were playing,” he said. “I thought we looked like a team that played the night before (a 9-1 win over Council Rock North) and like they have for a lot of games this year. They were just going through the motions in the first period.”
Then Rams responded. Pico and Andrew Savona scored goals two-and-a-half minutes apart to give the Rams a 3-2 lead. Cosick tied the game for the Patriots with 7:19 left in the period but James Embert and Pico scored goals 44 seconds apart to give the Rams a two-goal lead.
Cosick completed his hat trick with 1:37 left in the period but Pennridge’s Dane Fitchett scored the only goal of the third period. East’s chances were diminished when D.J. Brown was whistled for a check from behind with 7:20 left in the game.
East goaltender Matt Mangiacapre kept his team in the game, he was credited with 52 saves
“We came out strong and matched their tempo,” said East coach Jeff Mitchell., but we took a couple bad penalties in the third period. (Brown) is our top defenseman that was here tonight. It wasn’t intentional, it was just an ill-timed call and an ill-timed play.
“All in all I thought we played a great game. Our goaltender played on his head again.”
Pennridge 1 4 1—6
C.B. East 1 3 0—4
First-period goals: Charlie Keiser (CBE) from Drew Trask, 1:50; Kevin Pico (P) unassisted, 10:43
Second-period goals: Corey Cosick (CBE) from Keiser, 1:17; Pico (P) unassisted, 4:16; Andrew Savona (P) from Pico and Colin Dachowki, 6:51; Cosick (CBE) from Stephen DiRugeris, 9:41; James Embert (P)) from Colin Dachowski, 11:25; Pico (P) from Savona and Shane Dachowski, 12:19; Cosick (CBE) unassisted, 15:23
Third-period goals: Dane Fitchett (P) from Savona and Colin Dachowski, 1:59
Shots: Pennridge 58, C.B. East 25; Saves: Jacob Winston (P) 21 Matt Mangiacapre (CBE) 52
HATFIELD TOWNSHIP—Officially, Wednesday’s matchup between Quakertown was the regular-season finale for both teams. In reality, it might as well have been a playoff game.
It was the Panthers who prevailed 7-2 in a SHSHL American Division encounter at Hatfield Ice.
The win assures Quakertown (10-4-1-1, 6-4-1-1 in the division) of a playoff spot. Wissahickon (10-6, 6-6 in the division) comes up short if, as expected, Plymouth Whitemarsh defeats Springfield on Thursday night. Both teams remain eligible for the Flyers Cup tournament.
Kiera Shaw played a huge role in Quakertown’s success. The junior scored two goals, including the game winner.
The first period belonged to Quakertown goaltender Matt Krem, who turned aside 17 of the 18 shots he saw in the opening session. Largely as the result of Krem’s efforts, the teams ended the first frame tied at 1-1. The Trojans’ Danny Hussa and the Panthers’ William Shaw were the goal scorers.
“We’re just so thankful that Matt is great in net,” Kiera Shaw said. “They were beating up on us in the first period so we took it to them in the second and third and got it back.”
The Panthers did just that, albeit with some from the Trojans Defensive zone breakdowns led to three Quakertown goals in a span of 1 minute, 25 seconds. Cole Slemmer (on a shorthanded effort), Kiera Shaw, and Jack Diliberto were the goal scorers.
“In the second period they got more aggressive,” said Wissahickon coach Ken Harrington. “They would chip it down below the goal line. That’s bread and butter for them.”
Trailing 4-2 at the 4:01 mark of the third period, the Trojans got a huge opportunity when Slemmer and his teammate Corbin Cassel drew minor penalties simultaneously, giving the Trojans a two-man advantage for two minutes. Slemmer went on to draw a game misconduct penalty for a verbal outburst; as he left the ice he hurled his stick over the glass behind the Quakertown net.
Instead of capitalizing on the advantage however, the Trojans floundered. Kiera Shaw scored a shorthanded goal at the 5:43 mark and the Panthers maintained control to the wire.
Quakertown’s Lucas Cunnane scored the final two goals of the evening; his second goal came with 3:23 remaining and was scored into an empty net.
“We’ve talked all year about zone time,” said Quakertown coach Keith Krem. “We didn’t win that battle at all in the first period. We got some big saves on the back side and kind of got through the storm.
“They were only running two lines on the other side … we thought they were going to gas out and if we stopped turning pucks over on our exits and started getting pucks in our zone, we’d get our opportunities.”
Shaw credited the Quakertown rooting section for the energy in the building.
“They just really made the atmosphere great tonight,” she said. “Everyone was ready for the game. Everyone really loves the team and wants to keep playing.”
Quakertown 1 3 3—7
Wissahickon 1 10—2
First-period goals: Danny Hussa from Aiden Brooks, 11:04; William Shaw (Q) unassisted, 14:01
Second-period goals: Danny Hussa unassisted, 4:23 (pp); Cole Slemmer (Q) from Jack Diliberto, 11:48 (sh); Kiera Shaw (Q) from Lucas Cunnane 12;52; Diliberto (Q) unassisted, 13:13
Third-period goals: Kiera Shaw (Q) unassisted 5:43 (sh); Cunnane (Q) from William Shaw, 10:42; Cunnane (Q) unassisted, 13:37
HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, N.J.—The playoff environment gave The Hun School Raiders a spring in their step. Brendan Marino scored goals as the Raiders kicked off the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference Tuesday afternoon with a 5-2 win over Malvern Prep in a play-in game at Ice Land.
The win advances the fourth-seeded Raiders (10-12 overall) to the APAC semifinals; They’ll oppose La Salle on February 22 at 4:00 at Hatfield Ice. Fifth-seeded Malvern Prep (8-7) will be idle until the Class AAA Flyers Cup tournament next month.
The Raiders’ aggressive style worked to their advantage as they physically dominated the Friars from the outset.
“I think we’ve got an older team” Marino said, “a big, strong team and I think it helped us early in the game, because we’re able to get physical, get pucks in, get pucks out, and play together as a team.”
Hun School coach Ian McNally noted the referees were tolerant of physical play early on. There were no penalties called in the first period. There were seven whistled in the second period and 10 in the third.
“The first two periods there weren’t many penalties being called,” McNally said. “That let us kind of set the tone.”
Malvern Prep was laboring under the additional burden of being shorthanded; offensive catalysts Jimmy and Jeremy Jacobs were away on club duty.
By the time the first period ended, the Friars were in a 2-0 hole.
Hun School’s Justin LaPlante and Malvern Prep’s Pax Hoshik barrel in front of the Malvern Prep net. (photo: Robert Barnes)
Josh Sosner got things started for the Raiders 10:30 into the opening period off an offensive zone faceoff. Marino made it 2-0 with 32 seconds left in the period when he topped in Aidan Shine’s shot from the right point.
Gavin Wilson got Malvern Prep on the board 3:08 into the second frame when he beat Stephen Chen in the Hun School net.
The Raiders answered back almost six minutes later with one of the most picturesque goals of the APAC season. Charles Etienne-Jeffe played the puck the puck up the center of the ice from the midway point on his own defensive zone and caught Ryan Levesque in full stride. Levesque beat the Friar defense and goaltender Brandon Novabilski to make it a 3-1 game at the 9:04 mark.
Just 31seconds later, Elian Estulin gave the hosts a 4-1 lead.
Aidan Kelly cut onto that lead when he scored for the Friars with 4:09 left in the period.
Going into the third frame, Jared Ingersol, who filled in for Bill Keenan behind the Malvern Prep bench (Keenan was absent due to a family issue) thought his team still had a shot as it started the third period with a 72-second power play; Marino was serving a high-sticking sentence.
“We thought we were right there coming out of the second period,” Ingersol said. “Hopefully we could get a power-play goal and get us back in the game.”
Alas for the Malvern Prep faithful, it wasn’t to be. The Raiders killed the remaining penalty time and Marino scored his second goal of the game and what turned out to be the only goal of the third period, just nine seconds after his penalty expired.
McNally saw the win as a season’s worth of effort paying off.
“We’ve had a lot of games where we work hard,” he said. “We shoot the puck, I think we’re playing physical, but we don’t score the clutch goals when we need them.
“And today was back-to-back breakaways and a guy coming out of the box for a breakaway goal. Those goals are clutch goals at the right time.”
Ice Chips—Hun School and La Salle will open the semifinal doubleheader next Wednesday at 4:00. The second semifinal matching second seed Holy Ghost Prep and third seed St. Joseph’s Prep will follow at 6:15. The Founders Cup title game is set for March 1. It will be hosted by the highest seeded finalist.
Malvern Prep 0 2 0—2
Hun School 2 2 1—5
First-period goals: Josh Sosner (HS) from Aidan Shine and Justin LaPlante, 10:30; Brendan Marino (HS) from Shine and Ryan Levesque 16:28
Second-period goals: Gavin Wilson (MP) from Matt Barbacane and Teague Murray, 3:08; Ryan Levesque (HS) from Charles Etienne-Jeffe, 9:04; Elian Estulin (HS) from Levesque and Charles Guida,9:35; Aidan Kelly (MP) from Murray and Jack Sharer, 11:51 (pp)
Third-period goals: Brendan Marino (HS) from Vincent Gregoire, 1:23
Shots: Malvern Prep 24, Hun School 52; Saves: Brandon Novabilski (MP) 47, Stephen Chen (HS) 22
This is the final set of rankings before the field for the Flyers Cup tournament will be finalized on February 26. The tournament is an invitational event; teams are selected and seeded by the Flyers Cup Committee. There are no automatic bids.
BRSTOL—After an up-and-down season, the La Salle Explorers are ripening like a field full of crops, just as harvest time is drawing near. Evan Golato and James Carpenter scored two goals each as the Explorers held off Holy Ghost Prep 6-5 Monday afternoon at Grundy Arena.
After starting the season by winning just one of its first five games, La Salle stands at 11-8-2 with one regular-season game remaining. The Explorers, who have won their last four starts and six of their last seven, finished Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference play as the regular-season champion with a 6-2 league.
They’ll be seeded first in the conference semifinals, and will face the winner of Thursday’s play-in between Malvern Prep and Hun School on February 22 at Hatfield Ice. Ghost Prep (15-6, 4-2-1-1 in conference) will be the second seed in the playoffs and will take on third-seeded St. Joseph’s Prep in the other semifinal on the same day at the same venue.
Golato scored both his goals in the first period as La Salle took a 2-1 lead. The goals were sandwiched a goal from the Firebirds’ Prep’s Colin Bara.
“We expected a dogfight coming into today,” Golato said. “We’re glad we got away with a win. We just want to keep going game by game, winning and winning. That’s all we want as a team.”
Traffic in front of the La Salle net includes the Explorers’ Will Giordano (#3), and Thomas Doucet (#6) along with Holy Ghost Prep’s Kieran Mulholland (#13) and Zach Pers (#72) Photos by Robert Barnes
Carpenter and Holy Ghost Prep’s Brady Baehser traded goals in the second session before John Seravalli tied the game with 6:53 left in the period. But Matt Giordano answered 43 seconds later with a shot from the high slot to give La Salle the lead for good.
Will Gregorio and Carpenter extended the La Salle lead with third-period goals before Ciaran Chambers scored for the Firebirds with 11:11 left in the game. Kieran Mulholland made it a one-goal game with 29 seconds remaining.
Holy Ghost Prep coach Gump Whiteside praised the effort of both teams.
“A great APSC game,” he said. “Two great opponents competed to the bitter end.
“I was really happy with how we kept battling back. Nobody wants to chase the game of course, but I was really proud of the effort there.”
Both teams shuffled goaltenders. Jake Rossi started for La Salle, before giving way to Aries Carangi, but later returned before yielding to Carangi once more. Colin Mudrick started in goal for the Firebirds before Jack Unger came on in relief. Mudrick later returned but Unger relieved him again in the third period.”
Golato noted the victory was a true team effort.
“It wasn’t just a performance by one person,” he said. “Every single kid stepped up and had a great game for us to plug away and get the win.”
La Salle 2 2 2—6
Holy Ghost Prep 1 2 2—5
First-period goals: Evan Golato (L) from Ryan Desmond and Declan Kelly, 3:00; Colin Bara (HGP) from Brandon Barger, 12:26; Golato (L) from Will Gregorio, 15:45 (pp)
Second-period goals: James Carpenter (L) from Matt Giordano, 5:07; Brady Baehser (HGP) from Barger, 5:15; John Seravalli (HGP) from Baehser, 13:02; Giordano (L) from Julian Tarsi, 13:45
Third-period goals: Giordano (L) from Michael Zaraycki, 1:49 (pp); Carpenter (L) unassisted, 4:19; Ciaran Chambers (HGP) from Ryan Lippy, 5:49; Kieran Mulholland (HGP) from Mike Holt and Chambers
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What happened on the ice at Ice Line Thursday evening paled in comparison to what happened off the ice.
The Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference game between Malvern Prep and St. Joseph’s Prep, a 4-1 win for the Friars, was preceded by a dine-and benefit event which raised funds to support the fight against Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome, or RTS, a genetic disorder that causes intellectual and developmental disabilities that affects one in 125,000 children.
Connor Keenan, the 3-year old son of Malvern Prep coach Bill Keenan is afflicted with the syndrome.
The dine- donate event, which included a 50-50 drawing, was held at Ice World’s Goal Line Pub prior to game time; a portion of the evening’s receipts will be donated to a foundation that is focused on treating and finding a cure for RTS.
During the pregame warmup, both teams wore specially designed jerseys highlighting the fight against RTS and Keenan and his family, including his wife Sarah and Connor, and, along with 6-year old Olivia and 8-year old J.J. took part in a ceremonial puck drop just prior to game time.
Keenan expressed her appreciation for the hockey community’s support of her family.
“It’s very humbling,” she said. “We really feel the love from the whole community, and it just goes to show what a great community the hockey world really is.”
Sarah Keenan spoke of the challenges the family has faced since Connor was diagnosed with RTS last year.
“It’s been overwhelming,” she said, “but we’ve made a lot of progress in the last year. Connor has shown us a lot and taught us a lot too.
Keenan noted the importance of educating the public about RTS.
“It’s very rare,” she said. “So, it’s important just make people aware of it for inclusion purposes and to get that research really going to see if they can help kids with the syndrome out.”
Bill Keenan expressed his thanks for the support he and his family have received.
“The community has been great,” he said. “It’s all new. It’s rare. So, to have a night like this is good and hopefully we can do it in years to come.”
The Keenan family; J.J. Olivia, Bill, Sarah, and Connor join Malvern Prep’s Steven Getsie (left) and St. Joseph’s Prep’s Jeffrey Hammond for the opening faceoff.
• The game—Four different players scored goals for the Friars, who closed the regular season at 8-6 (2-5-0-1 in the APAC. Caiden Canale, Gavin Wilson, Ryan Clark, and Brady Doyle all found the back of the net. Doyle also added two assists. Caiden Kelly scored for the Hawks (14-5-2, 3-4-1-0)
St. Joseph’s Prep 0 0 1—1
Malvern Prep 1 2 1—4
First-period goal: Caiden Canale (MP) from Brady Doyle, 10:05
Second-period goals: Gavin Wilson (MP) from Aidan Kelly and Canale,: 15 (pp); Ryan Clark (MP) from Doyle, 1:00 (pp)
Third-period goals: Caiden Kelly (SJP) from Jeffrey Hammond, 1:59; Doyle (MP) from Kelly, 16:43 (en)
Shots: St. Joseph’s Prep 25, Malvern Prep 33; Saves: Ajay White (SJP) 29, Brandon Novabilski (MP) 24
HAMILTON TOWNSHIP N.J.— The playoff seedings in the Atlantic Prep Athletic Conference are now set in stone.
The Hun School took care of business Wednesday afternoon with a 2-1 win over Malvern Prep at Ice Land.
Charles Guida scored the deciding goal with 1:44 remaining in the third period.
The win assured the Raiders (9-12, 3-5 in conference play) of a fourth-place regular-season finish. The Friars (7-6, 1-5-0-1 in conference) will finish fifth regardless of the result of their regular-season finale against St. Joseph’s Prep Thursday night.
Hun School will host Malvern Prep Tuesday afternoon at 4:00 in a play-in game, with the winner to advance to the playoff semifinals against the winner of Monday’s game between Holy Ghost Prep and La Salle.
Wednesday was Senior Night at Hun School and appropriately, Raider goaltender Stephen Chen was at his best, making 40 saves. Brandon Novabilski in the Malvern Prep net was outstanding as well, recording 35 saves of his own.
“(Novabilski) played very good as well,” Chen said. “it was tough for us to score.”
Chen had a sense early on that it would be a good day for goaltenders.
“You kind of get a feel at the beginning of the game,” he said. “You get the first couple shots and you kind of know you’re in that zone and you’ve got to kind of focus and keep yourself in there. I think it was a great effort by our defensemen as well, just to help me stand there with the saves and the rebounds. I think it was a huge team effort.”
Stephen Chen at work, making a save in Wednesday’s game (photo by MaxMangigian)
Brendan Marino gave the Raiders a 1-0 lead when he beat Novabilski with a slapshot from between the two circles with 5:03 left in the opening period.
The two netminders were perfect after that until the midway point of the third frame. Both were tested.
“This was what we were used to the first half of the year,” said Hun School coach Ian McNally. “We’re up by one in the third period, how do we close out the game and when? It was nice to be talking about that again.
“Stephen is a huge part of that. He stopped like four breakaways a couple two-on–oh chances. It was certainly nice to see him back in that form.”
Malvern Prep didn’t roll over however. Jimmy Jacobs tied the game 8:47 into the third period off a right-wing, neutral-zone faceoff.
From that point on there was a sense the next goal would decide matters. Guida’s game winner came on a shot from the left point that beat Novabilski inside the right post to the goaltender’s left.
For Malvern Prep, it was another case of ‘Almost but not quite.’
“Hun is a very good, sound defensive team” said Friars’ coach Bill Keenan. “They’re fast, they’re physical, they have two very good goaltenders. I thought both teams played well, but we’ve got to find that way to win.”
Malvern Prep 0 0 1—1
Hun School 1 0 1—2
First-period goal: Brendan Marino (HS) from T.J. Walsh, 11:57
Third-period goals: Jimmy Jacobs (MP) from Aidan Kelly and Steven Getsie, 8:47; Charles Guida (HS) from Eliian Estulin and Ryan Levesque, 15:16
Shots: Malvern Prep 41, Hun School 37; Saves: Brandon Novabilski (MP) 35, Stephen Chen (HS) 40
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from Aiden Brooks, 11:04; William Shaw (Q) unassisted, 14:01
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