Bensalem 4 P-W 3 OT

Plymouth Whitemarsh and Bensalem have moved to the head of the pack in the SHSHL’s American Division. On Thursday night at Hatfield Ice, they began finding out about each other.

Alex Hood’s goal 1:38 into overtime gave the Owls a 4-3 win in what is shaping up as an entertaining season-long series. Thursday’s game was the first of three meetings between the two teams.

The result pushed Bensalem to 5-1 overall and in the division; the Owls have been perfect since an opening-night loss to Wissahickon. They came from behind three times on Thursday.

The Colonials (4-2 overall) lost for the first time in five league starts.

Alex Baylevich set up the winning goal when he put the puck on net from his post at the right point. Hood was on hand to score his second goal of the game and his 22^nd of the season. He also contributed two assists to his team’s cause.

Hood described the winning goal.

“All three of their kids were puck watching,” he said, “so I went backdoor. [Baylevich] found me like he always does. Tic tac toe in the back of the net.”

Both teams came into Thursday’s encounter at less than full strength. The Colonials had three regulars out of the lineup including two front-line centers. For their part, the Owls had only eight skaters available. That circumstance forced their coach Bill Hood to do some juggling.

“We had a lot of penalties (8) which hurt,” he said. “But we’ve got kids that play very high level club hockey so they’re used to this kind of pace.”

The scoring started early. David Branigan put Plymouth Whitemarsh in front just 55 seconds into the first period. Hood tied the game at the 2:21 mark.

Jason Segal put the Colonials back in front with 44 seconds left in the middle period and Plymouth Whitemarsh seemed to have the upper hand heading into the third frame, but the momentum shifted dramatically when Cole Salayda tied the game with a shorthanded with 12:13 left in regulation.

Tim Murphy gave Plymouth Whitemarsh the lead for the last time with a one timer from the high slot with 6:33 remaining.

But that wasn’t enough; Lucas Gonzalez poked in a rebound with 4:01 left to kick off the mad dash to the finish line.

Ricky Gonzalez in the Bensalem net might have made the biggest contribution to his team’s win. He finished with 32 saves, many of them difficult.

“Ricky’s been a rock all year,” Bill Hood said. “He definitely gives us confidence back there. We take some risks at times defensively and he’s always back there.”

The loss was a tough one for the Colonials but their coach Dave Cox took a pragmatic view.

“We knew coming in that Bensalem was going to be a tough opponent,” he said, “and I believe it was a good test of our character and what we need to work on.

“I’m proud of our boys for faced the adversity. We had a very short bench tonight, A lot of the boys were playing with different linemate pairs and that took some adjusting to, and our power-play wasn’t working well but they worked hard every shift. Overtime losses are never easy, but we look forward to seeing this team a couple more times.”

Bensalem 1 0 2 1—4

P-W 1 1 1 0—3
First-period goals: David Branigan (PW) unassisted, :55; Alex Hood (B) from Cole Salayda and Brandon Stahl. 2:21;

Second-period goal: Jason Segal (PW) from Tim Murphy and Daniel Molony, 16:16

Third-period goals: Salayda (B) from Lucas Gonzalez and Hood, 4:47 (sh); Murphy (PW) from John Zawislak and Molony, 10:27; Gonzalez (B) from Justin Rapone and Hood, 12:59

Overtime goal: Hood (B) from Alex Baylevich, 1:38

Shots: Bensalem 25, Plymouth Whitemarsh 35; Saves: Ricky Gonzalez (B) 32; Julian Lucks (PW) 21

NP Ice Hockey Toy Drive is an Annual Tradition

The North Penn Hockey Club is once again conducting a toy drive in support of the North Penn Valley Boys and Girls Club, and its efforts to serve needy families in the North Penn area.

Those interested in participating are asked to Venmo North Penn Ice Hockey at @NPHockey with a donation.

North Penn Ice Hockey will match up to $500 of the donations. The club will utilize the donations to purchase toys for children ages 5-12 and gift cards to local grocery stores for those in need.

They will be delivered to the Boys and Girls Club on Monday, December 18.

North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis says the toy drive in part of North Penn Ice Hockey’s ongoing effort to serve its community.

“We look at it as we’re one community here,” he said, “and if there is an opportunity for us to help out those less fortunate right now, those going through some difficult times, we want to lend a hand.

“This past weekend, a bunch of us went over and we were raking leaves at an over-55 community, helping some of the elderly who can’t get out there or can’t afford to pay somebody to rake their leaves up.

“I think we’re teaching these kids to give back to the community. We’re fortunate with the situation we’re in; we’re able to play ice hockey, it’s not the cheapest sport. So, if we can give back a little and help those less fortunate or having a difficult time right now, we’re willing to do it.”

For more information about the toy drive, contact Vaitis at kevinvaitis@comcast.net

SHSHL Update

National Division W L T OW OL Pts

Council Rock South (7-0) 6 0 0 0 0 12

Pennridge (6-0) 6 0 0 0 0 12

Cent. Bucks South (4-2-1) 4 1 1 0 0 9

Central Bucks East (4-2) 4 2 0 0 0 8

North Penn (3-2) 3 2 0 0 0 6

Pennsbury (2-4) 2 4 0 0 1 5

Cent. Bucks West (1-4-1) 1 4 1 0 0 3

Souderton (1-4-0) 1 4 0 1 0 2

Neshaminy (0-4-2) 0 4 2 0 0 2

Council Rock North (0-6) 0 6 0 0 0 0

American Division W L T OW OL Pts

Bensalem (4-1) 3 1 0 0 1 7

Plymouth White. (4-1) 3 0 0 0 0 6

Wissahickon (2-2) 2 2 0 0 1 4

Abington (1-2-1) 1 1 0 0 0 2

Springfield (0-6) 0 5 0 0 0 0

National Division Scoring G A Pts

Kevin Pico (Pr) 11 16 27

Andrew Savona (Pr) 12 14 26

Shane Dachowski (Pr) 12 12 24

Kevin Koles (CRS) 10 14 24

Jake Weiner (CRS) 11 6 17

Corey Kosick (CBE) 12 4 16

Blaize Pepe (CRS) 8 7 15

Maxwell Ryon (Soud) 8 6 14

Seth Grossman (Soud) 7 5 12

Chase Tovsky (Soud) 3 9 12

Gavin Nisenon (CRS) 5 5 10

Jordan Sarne (CRS) 3 7 10

American Division Scoring G A Pts

Alex Hood (Bens) 16 5 21

David Branigan (PW) 8 4 12

Daniel Hussa (Wiss) 9 2 11

Alex Bazylevich (Bens) 2 8 10

Tim Murphy (PW) 2 7 9

Seamus Donofry (Ab) 2 6 8

Cole Salayda (Bens) 3 4 7

SHSHL Update 11-28-23

National Division W L T OW OL Pts

Council Rock South 5 0 0 0 0 10

Pennridge 5 0 0 0 0 10

Central Bucks East 3 1 0 0 0 6

Cent. Bucks South 2 1 1 0 0 5

North Penn 2 2 0 0 0 4

Cent. Bucks West 1 3 1 0 0 3

Pennsbury 1 3 0 0 1 3

Neshaminy 0 3 2 0 0 2

Souderton 1 3 0 1 0 2

Council Rock North 0 4 0 0 0 0

American Division W L T OW OL Pts

Bensalem 3 1 0 0 1 7

Plymouth White. 3 0 0 0 0 6

Abington 1 1 1 0 0 3

Wissahickon 1 2 0 0 1 2

Springfield 0 5 0 0 1 1

National Division Scoring G A Pts

Andrew Savona (Pr) 10 12 22

Kevin Pico (Pr) 9 11 20

Shane Dachowski (Pr) 8 12 20

Kevin Koles (CRS) 9 9 18

Maxwell Ryon (Soud) 8 6 14

Blaize Pepe (CRS) 7 7 14

Jake Weiner (CRS) 8 4 12

Corey Kosick (CBE) 10 1 11

Chase Tovsky (Soud) 3 8 11

Gavin Nisenon (CRS) 5 5 10

Jordan Sarne (CRS) 3 7 10

American Division Scoring G A Pts

Alex Hood (Bens) 16 5 21

Seamus Donofry (Ab) 2 9 11

Alex Bazylevich (Bens) 2 8 10 10

Dylan Novitsky (PW) 6 3 9

Michael Romano (Ab) 4 4 8

Jason Segal (PW) 3 5 8

Daniel Guller (PW) 2 5 7

Isaac Mishkin (PW) 2 5 7

Cole Salayda (Bens) 2 5 7

C.B. East 4 C.B. West 2

WARWICK TOWNSHIP—With the demise of Thanksgiving Day high-school football, scholastic hockey, now more than ever, has become an entrenched holiday tradition, one which brings together traditional rivals.

Central Bucks East and Central Bucks West have been rivals in all sports for over half a century, since before either school fielded a hockey team. And their traditional Thanksgiving Eve shootout on ice brought with it a full measure of emotional energy.

“It’s good to get a lot of support from the fans from the respective schools,” said East coach Jeff Mitchell. “The homecoming [football] game and rivalry games aren’t too much of a thing anymore, especially since Covid, so it’s good that the league still lets us have these games and tries to make a little bit more special than the rest of them.”

West Coach Dave Baun spoke of the familiarity the players on both side have with one another.

“Many of the kids know the opponent,” he said, “because they went to Tohickon [Middle School] together. It’s a great rivalry, there are great kids on both teams, and we have a lot of fun.”

On this occasion, it was the Patriots who had the upper hand. Corey Kosick scored three goals in a span of 4 minutes, 57 seconds in the first period to pace his team to a 4-2 win in front of a full house at Revolution Ice Gardens.

It was the second win for the Patriots (3-1) over the Bucks (1-3-1) in 13 days; East won the first meeting 7-3 on November 9.

Kosick’s first goal of the night, his eighth of the season, came off a turnover when he when in on West netminder Liam Rogers essentially unchallenged. His second tally came at the 7:57 mark, he completed his hat trick just 19 seconds later.

Kosick was playing in his third East-West holiday matchup.

“I think we probably had the most people here for this year,” he said. “There was a lot of energy. It was fun to play in front of all these people because we don’t usually get that many.”

Evan Asimakopoulos made it a 4-0 game 29 seconds into the middle period but the Bucks were still hanging around, largely due to the work of Liam Rogers in goal. The senior made 26 saves over the course of the first two periods.

When Anthony Dowd and Adam Ricci scored goals 20 second apart West found itself trailing just 4-2 with a period-and-a-half of hockey remaining. But Cole Breen kept the Bucks at bay the rest of the way.

“I feel like we kind of took our foot off the gas at the start of the second period,” Mitchell said, “which kind of gave them room to kind of start getting back into the game and we took a couple of bad penalties.

“But all in all, the boys were pretty much giving 110 [percent] throughout the entire game.”

West was unable to take advantage of five power-play chances (one of them abbreviated).

“You would never guess that we worked on our power play breakout at practice on Monday,” said West coach Dave Baun. “but sometimes they have short memories. Some of this stuff should be second nature and it’s not.”

C.B. West 0 2 0—2

C.B. East 3 1 0—4

First-period goals: Corey Kosick (CBE) unassisted, 3:19; Kosick (CBE) from Evan Asimakopoulos and Drew Trask, 7:57; Kosick (CBE) from Asimakopoulos and Trask, 8:16

Second-period goals: Asimakopoulos (CBE) from Kosick, :29; Anthony Dowd (CBW) unassisted, 12:35; Adam Ricci (CBW) from Dowd, 12:55

Shots: C.B. West 25, C.B. East 40; Saves: Liam Rogers (CBW) 36, Cole Breen (CBE) 23

Thanksgiving Eve Scoreboard 11-22-23

La Salle 4 Malvern Prep 1

Julian Tarsi scored a pair of second-period goals to pace La Salle to a 4-1 win over Malvern Prep Wednesday night in an APAC game at Ice Line. It was the second conference win of the season for the Explorers who are 5-0 overall and have won 10 straight dating back to last season.

Aidan Kelly gave the Friars (3-2, 1-1 in conference) the lead just 21 seconds into the opening period. Michael Esmond tied the game for La Salle at the 14:34 mark.

Tarsi’s goals came in a span of 3:14 late in the second period.

La Salle 1 2 1—4

Malvern Prep 1 0 0—1

First-period goals: Aidan Kelly (MP) from Jeremy Jacobs, :21; Michael Esmond (L) from John Mullen, 14:34

Second-period goals: Julian Tarsi (L) from Dean Carvalho, 11:21 (pp); Tarsi (L) from Declan Kelly, 14:35

Third-period goal: Will Carpenter (L) from Patrick Brace and Will Gregorio 16:46 (sh),

Shots: La Salle 41, Malvern Prep 19; Saves: Jacob Rossi (L) 18, Matt Crawford (MP) 37

Elsewhere

Central Bucks East 4 Central Bucks West 2 (Recap available on this blog)

Pennsbury 3 Neshaminy 0—Three different players scored goals for the victorious Falcons. Aaron McDaniel earned the shutout in goal.

Pennridge 13 Souderton 5—Six different players scored goals for the Rams. Andrew Savona, Kevin Pico, and Shane Dachowski all delivered hat tricks.

Council Rock South 10 vs. Council Rock North 0—Kevin Koles, Jackson Mosley, and Nikita Volobuiev all scored two goals as the Golden Hawks shut out the Indians at Revolution Ice Gardens

Central Bucks South 4 North Penn 2—Ryan Frey, Jeff Kvecher, and Audan Linso all scored third-period goals to lead the Titans over the Knights.

Hatboro-Horsham/Upper Dublin 7 Springfield 6 OT

Father Judge 3 Holy Ghost Prep 1—Jason Sarmon, Joe Mullen, and Colin Howell scored goals for the victorious Crusaders in the non-league game at Grundy Arena. Anthony Prete scored for the Firebirds (0-3)

Boyertown 4 Plymouth Whitemarsh 3

Luke Hennessy’s goal 26 seconds into overtime gave Boyertown a 4-3 win over Plymouth Whitemarsh Monday night at the Wells Fargo Center as the Colonials celebrated Senior Night.

Jason Segal, Luke Smith, and Tim Murphy scored for Plymouth Whitemarsh (3-1).

Boyertown 2 1 0 1—4

P-W 1 1 1 0—3

SHSHL Update 11-19-23

National Division W L T OW OL Pts

Council Rock South 4 0 0 0 0 8

Pennridge 4 0 0 0 0 8

Central Bucks East 2 1 0 0 0 4

North Penn 2 1 0 0 0 4

Cent. Bucks South 1 1 1 0 0 3

Cent. Bucks West 1 2 1 0 0 3

Neshaminy 0 2 2 0 0 2

Souderton 1 2 0 1 0 2

Pennsbury 0 3 0 0 1 1

Council Rock North 0 3 0 0 0 0

American Division W L T OW OL Pts

Bensalem 3 1 0 0 1 7

Plymouth White. 3 0 0 0 0 6

Abington 1 1 1 0 0 3

HH/UD 1 1 1 0 0 3

Wissahickon 1 2 0 0 1 2

Springfield 0 4 0 0 0 0

If you’d like to promote your product or service here at Hockey Happenings, contact us at rwoelfel2013@gmail.com

National Division Scoring G A Pts

Andrew Savona (Pr) 7 9 16

Kevon Koles (CRS) 7 8 15

Shane Dachowski (Pr) 5 8 13

Blaize Pepe (CRS) 7 6 13

Kevin Pico (Pr) 6 6 12

Jake Weiner (CRS) 8 4 12

Alex Bazylevich (Bens) 2 8 10

Maxwell Ryon (Soud) 7 3 10

Chase Tovsky (Soud) 3 7 10

American Division Scoring G A Pts

Alex Hood (Bens) 16 5 21

William Hulbert (HH/UD) 10 3 13

Seamus Donofry (Ab) 2 9 11

Dylan Novitsky (PW) 6 3 9

Kevin McGinley (HH/UD) 3 5 8

Michael Romano (Ab) 4 4 8

Jason Segal (PW) 3 5 8

Pennridge 7 North Penn 0

HATFIELD TOWNSHIP—The Pennridge Ram just keep rolling along. Andrew Savona’s three goals and two assists led the way as the Ram bested North Penn 7-0 Friday night in a SHSHL National Division encounter at Hatfield Ice.

The win was the fourth straight without a blemish for Pennridge, which came into the season off an appearance in the Class AA Flyers Cup finals last March and seemingly hasn’t lost a beat

The formula for this year’s success however includes different elements from a year ago when the Rams were one of the area’s most potent offensive juggernauts.

Senior Colin Dachowski is Pennridge’s captain. He notes the Rams are employing a more workmanlike, grind-it-out-style this season.

“That’s the style we have to play,” he said. “Grind every team out, wear them down.”

Which is more or less how Friday’s game played out. Pennridge had the better of the play in the first period but could only solve North Penn netminder Ian McAteer once; Shane Dachowski found the net at the 5:40 mark, but North Penn (2-1) outshot the Rams 10-9 in the opening session.
Kevin Pico and Savona added goals in the middle period but the game was still competitive until the third frame when Savona scored twice, before and after a tally from Josh Kelly, in a span of five minutes, nine seconds to make it a 6-0 game halfway through the period.

Dachowski said he and his teammates have adapted to the new approach.

“I think everyone understands their role,” he said, “and we know the scorers and we know the grinders. We just go by that.”

Savona stressed the importance of the veterans in the lineup showing the way for their less-experienced teammates.
“It’s a big deal,” he said. “We want to be leaders on this team and have them follow us along and work hard and keep going.”

North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis had reason to be optimistic at evening’s end. The Knights played hard at both ends of the ice and made the Rams work for their chances until using up their energy reserves in the third period.

“We came out in the first period and I think we were kind of taken by surprise a little bit,” Vaitis said. “They’ve got a lot of talent on that team and they jumped on us early with some pressure.

“But, we hung with them, we continued to battle back. It was 1-0 after the first and we were doing all the things we needed to do, playing some good hockey.”

Vaitis cited McAteer for keeping his team in the game; the sophomore finished with 36 saves.

“We’ve got three goalies on the team and all three are very capable goalies at the varsity level,” he said. “It was Ian’s job tonight and he played really well for us.”

North Penn 0 0 0—0
Pennridge 1 2 4—7

First-period goal: Shane Dachowski (P) from Andrew Savona, 5:40

Second-period goals: Kevin Pico (P) from Savona and Dachowski, 6:29; Savona (P) from Dachowski and James Rush, 8:25 (pp)

Third-period goals: Savona (P) from Dachowski, 3:11; Josh Kelly (P) from Nolan Shaw, 5:16 (sh); Savona (P) from Tyler Manto, 8:20; Rush (P) from Pico and Manto, 12:06

Shots: North Penn 18, Pennridge 43; Saves: Ian McAteer(NP) 36, Jacob Winton (P) 18

Council Rock South 3 Malvern Prep 2 (OT)

Blaise Pepe’s goal with 1:27 left in overtime gave Council Rock South a 3-2 non-league win over host Malvern Prep Monday night at Ice Line.

Illia Mukhin and Chase Trovsky also scored for the Golden Hawks who have started the season with three consecutive wins, two of them over APAC opponents.

Tovsky’s shorthanded goal with 4:26 left in the second period tied the game after Brady Doyle scored a pair of goals two minutes apart to give the Friars (2-1) a 2-1 lead.

Trevor Rakszawski got the win in goal; he was credited with 54 saves. Matt Crawford was credited with 40 at the other end of the ice.

Council Rock South 1 1 0 1—3

Malvern Prep 0 2 0 0—2

First-period goal: Illia Mukhin (CRS) from Kevin Koles and Jake Weiner, 13:48

Second-period goals: Brady Doyle (MP) from Caiden Canale, 10:11; Brady Doyle (MP) from Jeremy Jacobs and Adan Kelly, 12:11 (pp); Chase Trovsky (CRS) unassisted, 12:34 (sh)

Overtime goal: Blaise Pepe (CRS) unassisted, 3:33

Shots: Council Rock South 56, Malvern Prep 43; Saves: Trevor Rakszawski (CRS) 54, Matt Crawford (MP) 40