Tag: Eric Wolf

Garnet Valley 2 WC East 1

In the Flyers Cup atmosphere, pressure and mistakes are magnified. So it was Tuesday night.

Kaden Longo’s goal off a turnover with 48 seconds left in the second period proved decisive as Garnet Valley prevailed over West Chester East 2-1 in a Class A semifinal at Ice Line.

The top-seeded Jaguars (21-2) will take a 12-game winning streak into Monday’s championship game against West Chester Henderson (at Ice Line, time TBD) where they will attempt to win their second Flyers Cup title; their first came in 1998. Fourth-seeded West Chester East closed its season at 11-10.

The winning goal came off a miscue when the Vikings coughed up the puck to the left of their goaltender Cameron Chandler and Longo was able to coral the puck and tuck it in the net.

“I think being alert out there really helps us,” Longo said. Having our head up. We have a great group of forwards, a great group of defensemen, we have good chemistry out there.

“I think, crashing the net, everything just worked out.”

The Vikings started the scoring when Konrad Finnin beat Garrett Stoops with the first shot of the game 2:10 into the opening period. Longo responded 10:30 into the opening frame during a power play with a shot from just inside the left faceoff circle.

Neither team could find the back of the net after that until Longo’s game winner but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. The Jaguars outshot the Vikings 46-31 but Chandler kept the Jaguars at bay

“We knew it was going to be a strong battle with these guys,” said Garnet Valley coach Stephane Charbonneau. “They all know each other. Everybody knows everybody.

“They started strong but we kept battling and working hard and chipping the puck out. Finish our checks, stay out of the box; that was very important for us.”

There were just six penalties called in the game, West Chester East was assessed four of them and Viking coach Eric Wolf felt that having to kill four penalties cost his team in the late going.

“It wasn’t lack of effort that lost this game,” he said. “We were fighting an uphill battle against one, sometimes two teams, so it’s tough. It’s hard to penalty kill for that long. It takes a lot out of your guys.

Wolf praised his netminder’s work; Chandler finished with 44 saves. A strong case could be made that he was the best player on the ice

“He was going to have to be the best player on the ice for us to win this game,” Wolf said. “We told him that coming into the is tournament. If we were going to be here in the end, he would have to be our best player.”

West Chester East 1 0 0—1

Garnet Valley 1 1 0—2

First-period goals: Konrad Finnin (WCE) from Sean Farrell, 2:10; Kaden Longo (GV) from Nolan Scott and A.J. Tenhuisen, 10:30 (pp)

Second-period goal: Longo (GV) Matt Abbonizio, 16:12

Shots: West Chester East 31, Garnet Valley 46; Saves: Cameron Chandler (WCE) 44, Garrett Stoops (GV) 30

West Chester East 3 Kennett 1

West Chester East was in shutdown mode Monday night.

Three different Vikings scored goals en route to a 3-1 Ches-Mont League win at Ice Line.

Sean Farrell, Jaxon Swirzina, and Braedon McVeigh scored for East (7-8, 3-7 in the Ches-Mont) but the Vikings were arguably most impressive inside their own blue line; they limited the Blue Demons (9-4-1, 6-3-1) to just 18 shots on goal with 12 of the 18 coming in the final period.

West Chester East coach Eric Wolf said his team stepped up after a 5-1 loss to Downingtown East last Friday night. The Vikings now won three of their last four starts.

“We got it together tonight,” he said. “Kennett is a very top-heavy team. They have a very good line and a very good line.

“So, we were focusing on ‘We’re not going to let that line beat us. The goaltender might beat us; there’s nothing really we can do about that but we didn’t want to let that line beat us.”

Sean Farrell have East a 1-0 lead 5:26 into the first period when his shot from the right point deflected past Kennett goaltender Auden Mott. The goal came one second after a roughing penalty to the Blue Demons Ben Fisher expired.

The Vikings extended their lead in the second frame. Jaxon Swirzina made it a 2-0game at the 1:41 mark before Braedon McVeigh extended his team’s advantage with a sharp-angle shot from the deep left wing that eluded Kennett goaltender Aiden Mott.

After managing a total of just shots on goal in the first two periods combined, Kennett came out swarming in the third, energized in part by a power-play chance that materialized when East’s James Hayes was called for tripping just 34 seconds into the period.

It took just 12 additional seconds for Kennett to get on the scoreboard. Colin Kelly scored the goal from close range via a feed from Lucas Mott who started the play from behind the Viking net.

The Blue Demons kept the pressure on from there and had a 12-6 shot advantage in the third period but were unable to solve Chandler.

Kennett’s last chance came when East’s Ben Peruto was called for tripping with 2:09 left in regulation the Vikings’ penalty killing unit was in top form. It limited the Blue Demons to one shot during the power play and that shot was not on goal; Kennett spent a few brief spurts in the offensive zone.

  • Kennett won te first meeting of the season between the two teams 3-2 in overtime on November 7.

Kennett 0 0 1—0

West Chester East 1 2 0—3

First-period goal: Sean Farrell (WCE) unassisted, 5:26;

Second-period goal: Jaxon Swirzina (WCE) from Teagan Stutzman and Ben Peruto 1:41; Braedon McVeigh (WCE) from James Hayes, 5:26

Third-period goals: Colin Kelly (K) from Lucas Mott :47

Shots: Kennett 18, W.C. East 31; Saves: Aiden Mott (K) 28, Cameron Chandler (WCE) 17