P-W 6 Wissahickon 2

HATFIELD TOWNSHIP—Coaches in all sports talk a lot about remaining disciplined. Plymouth Whitemarsh was in a winner in that department Thursday night and eventually prevailed on the scoreboard.

Blake Ambler scored two goals and assisted on another as the Colonials prevailed over Wissahickon 6-2 in a SHSHL American Division matchup at Hatfield Ice Arena.

The win kept Plymouth Whitemarsh unbeaten at 8-0 overall and most importantly, head and shoulders above the rest of the division with a 7-0 mark.

The key moment of the game came with 4:49 left in the second period just  moments after Logan Discus scored a goal to left the Trojans (5-4, 5-3 in the division) into a 1-1 tie.

Discus and one of the Colonials exchanged pleasantries and what began as pushes and shoves evolved into a skirmish in front of the Plymouth Whitemarsh bench. When the dust had settled, the Trojans found themselves without Aiden Brooks and Joseph Gambino, two of their top four scorers. The Colonials were minus Charles Spause but also were granted a five-minute power play.

Ambler’s first goal of the night came with 49 seconds left in the second frame when he carefully put the puck to the right of Wissahickon netminder Fletcher Lynch to give his team a lead it would hold for the balance of the evening.

Ryan Jagher made it a 3-1 game 2:39 into the final period. Logan Honeycutt scored for the Trojans two minutes and change later to make it a one-goal game once more but the Colonials answered emphatically with three goals in a span of 4 minutes, 41 seconds and left their opponents in their wake.

“With the holiday break you could tell there was a little bit of rust, aid Plymouth Whitemarsh coach Vince Forti. “But, I think halfway through the second, we started picking it up and getting back to our game. And, I think it showed by the end result.

Forti credited his team for the way it moved the puck.

“I would say that’s been one of our strengths all season,” he said. “Our puck movement has been great. We try to work on it a lot at practice but {the players} deserve a lot of credit too because they’ve been really good about that.”

Wissahickon coach James Rumsey said the altercation impacted his team’s cohesion.

“We have too small a team to lose two people,” he said. “Especially key people. That hurt us a lot. But we felt good for the time we were playing. We had a close game the whole time up until then.”

Ambler noted the importance of the Colonials maintaining their composure following the altercation.

“If we started brawling and fighting everyone, then it would just turn into penalty after penalty, after penalty” he said. “You wouldn’t be able to do anything, you wouldn’t be playing hockey. You’ve just got to play hockey if you want to go out and win.”:

Plymouth Whitemarsh 1 1 4—6

Wissahickon 0 1 1—2

First-period goals Daniel Molony (PW) from Daniel Guller, 13:51

Second-period goals: Logan Discus (W) unassisted, 12:11; Blake Ambler (PW) from Luke Smith and Chris Londen, 16:11 (pp)

Third-period goals: Ryan Jagher (PW) from Londen, 2:39; Logan Honeycutt (W) unassisted, 4:54; Guller (PW) from Smith and Ambler, 9:16; Cooper Kanzee (PW) unassisted, 9:30; Ambler (PW) from Londen and Kanzee, 13:57

Shots: Plymouth-Whitemarsh 49, Wissahickon 26; Saves: Julian Lucks (PW) 24, Fletcher Lynch (W) 40