Hatboro-Horsham 8, Wissahickon 7

By Amanda Graham

Hatboro-Horsham and Wissahickon got their second look of the season at each other on Thursday night and while the game held the same excitement and back-and-forth action it was the Hatters that walked away with the victory this time around, 8-7 Thursday night at Hatfield Ice.

Nathan Nemchinov’s goal with 45 seconds left in regulation was the game winner.

With the win, the Hatters improved to 5-3 in SHSHL American Division play and 5-4 overall. The Trojans dropped to 5-3 overall and 5-2 in the division.

Looking to avenge their overtime loss the last time the two teams met, Hatboro-Horsham came out of the gate hot and dominated the offense with the only shots in the first two minutes.

The tides quickly turned in favor of Wissahickon when Jack Raebiger took the puck up ice for the unassisted goal, 1-0. Hatboro-Horsham continued to dominate the offense over the course of the next three minutes tallying eight more shots, but the Trojans’ Benjamin Raebiger collected the puck from Logan Honeycutt converting their second shot of the game for the 2-0 lead.

Penalty trouble hit Wissahickon hard doing down by two players but the team’s grit prevailed when Benjamin Raebiger found the back of the net for his second goal of the game to put the Trojans in a three-goal advantage.

The Hatters took advantage of the power play and began mounting their comeback scoring three goals in the final five minutes of the first period to even the score. Darius Graziani started the resurgence with a goal off the assist of Victor Wilkins before going on to help Nathan Nemchinov, the Hatters top scorer of the night, with one of his two goals over a 45- second span.

“I knew the team was better than what they were playing. We called a timeout to help settle it in and we kept chipping away to get us back to even again,” said Hatboro-Horsham coach Shane Smith.

Penalty trouble continued to plague the Trojans, a holding call in the final 18 seconds of the first period to begin the second a player short. Benjamin Raebiger broke the tie in favor of the Trojans with his third goal of the night just under four minutes into the second period. A slashing call on Wissahickon gave the Hatters a chance to even the score with Victor Wilkins answering the call for the power-play goal.

With 6:19 left to play in the second, Benjamin Raebiger collected the loose puck off a blocked shot and found the back of the net for his fourth goal to break the tie and put the Trojans back on top, 5-4. Logan Honeycutt followed up two minutes later with the unassisted shot creating the first two-goal advantage for Wissahickon for the first time since early in the first period, 6-4.

The scoring didn’t slow in the final period. Vincent Graziani and Nathan Nemchinov found the stick of Darius Graziani (6-5) just a minute and a half in to start what would become a four-goal comeback for the Hatters. Offense slowed over the ensuing two minutes, but Graziani and Nemchinov converted their shots within 45 seconds of one another to push Hatboro-Horsham into the lead, 7-6. Scoring machine Raebiger capitalized on the power play a minute later to keep Wissahickon in reach evening the score at seven apiece.

Just 15 seconds later and down a player, Vincent Graziani and Darius Graziani worked together to get the puck to the stick of Nemchinov for the Hatters game-winning goal, 8-7. The goal marked the fourth of the game for Nemchinov.

“The game winning goal, we needed it. It was a clutch goal. Three minutes left in the game, we needed to burry one and luckily we got it and capped off the game,” Nemchinov said.

Coming back from an overtime let down the last time these teams faced one another, Hatboro-Horsham knew a victory was key for them tonight.

“They knew that this was a big game for them,” Smith said. “They knew that this was an important game for them. It was exciting to see my captains and upperclassmen take the lead. I didn’t have to do much cheering on for the boys. They really cheered each other on and pumping each other up.”

“I thought we played great,” said Wissahickon head coach James Rumsey. “We were down a lot of people and played late last night, but I think they all played extremely well and tried their hardest. [Goaltender] Fletcher did great and he kept us in there a lot.”

Lynch finished the game with 39 saves.

Hatboro-Horsham 3 1 4 – 8

Wissahickon 3 3 1 7 – 7

First Period Goals: Jack Raebiger unassisted, 13:39; Benjamin Raebiger from Logan Honeycutt, 10:08; Benjamin Raebiger unassisted, 05:58 (sh); Darius Graziani (HH) from Victor Wilkins, 05:01(pp); Nathan Nemchinov (HH) unassisted, 01:30; Nathan Nemchinov (HH) from Vincent Graziani, 00:45.

Second Period Goals: Benjamin Raebiger unassisted, 13:31; Victor Wilkins (HH) unassisted, 11:17 (pp); Benjamin Raebiger unassisted, 06:19; Logan Honeycutt unassisted, 04:12.

Third Period Goals: Darius Graziani (HH) from Vincent Graziani and Nathan Nemchinov, 15:24; Vincent Graziani (HH) from Darius Graziani and Nathan Nemchinov, 04:54; Nathan Nemchinov (HH) from Vincent Graziani, 04:09; Bejamin Raebiger from Joseph Gambino IV, 03:19 (pp); Nathan Nemchinov (HH) from Vincent Graziani and Darius Graziani, 03:04 (sh).

Shots: Hatboro-Horsham 47, Wissahickon 17; Saves: Eric Miller (HH) 10, Fletcher Lynch 39

St. Joseph’s Prep 4 Malvern Prep 1

PHILADELPHIA—Cole Gargon stepped up for St. Joseph’s Prep in a big way for Sr. Joseph’s Prep Wednesday afternoon. The sophomore scored three of his team’s goals as the Hawks bested Malvern Prep 4-1 in an APAC encounter at the University of Pennsylvania’s Class of 1923 Arena.

The win lifted St. Joseph’s Prep (5-1, 3-1 in the APAC) into a three-way tie for the top spot in the conference standings but the Hawks have a game in hand over Holy Ghost Prep and La Salle, the teams they are tied with.

The hosts had to play from behind. After a scoreless first frame Gabe Bedwell gave the Friars (2-5, 1-3) the lead 6:50 into the second people when he put in a rebound of Matt Barbacane’s shot.

Gargon tied the game with a power-play goal at the 7:56 mark and put his team ahead for good 86 seconds later when he weaved his way through traffic front of the net and beat Malvern Prep goaltender Riley Doyle.

Gargon completed his hat trick six minutes into the third period before Frank Ely, who missed some time after being helped off the ice with an injury early in the first period finished the scoring with 2:08 left in the game.

Afterwards, Gawk coach David Giacomin credited Gargon and his linemates for their effort.

“Their line played well,” he said. “It was tough being without Frankie Ely for a while because of the injury but once he came back it was nice to be able to get that line back.”

Giacomin noted his team had some ups and downs over the course of the afternoon.

“The first 10 minutes of the game we played really well,” he said. “Then they took it to us a bit and won the board battle and all that stuff and it took us a little while to get back into it.”

Giacomin said the break for an ice cut between the second and third periods helped the Hawks regain their focus.

“Today it was well needed,” he said. The second period was not a pretty period to watch. There were a lot of scrums, there wasn’t much up-and-down skating. We had to get them back to doing what we were supposed to do.”

The Friars were limited to just 15 shots on goal.

“We’ve been stressing moving through the ice, good zone entry, and getting shots on net,” aid Malvern Prep coach Bill Keenan. “We weren’t able to get much traffic today.

“Overall, I thought our effort was there for a period-and-a-half and then it tailed off.”

Malvern Prep 0 1 0—1

St. Joseph’s Prep 0 2 2—4

Second-period goals: Gabe Bedwell (MP) from Matt Barbcane and Paton Hoishak, 3:50 (pp); Cole Gargon (SJP) from Frank Ely, 9:04; Gargon (SJP) unassisted, 10:30 (pp)

Third-period goals: Gargon (SJP) from Michael Castelli and Ely, 6:00; Ely (SJP) unassisted, 14:52

Shots: Malvern Prep 15, St. Joseph’s Prep 25; Saves: Riley Doyle (MP) 21, Declan Geary (SJP) 14

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Flyers Cup Rankings Debut for ’24-’25

The Flyers Cup Committee has released its first set of rankings for the 2024-25 season., It’s the first major step toward the selection of the field for the Flyers Cup tournament at season’s end. The rankings were determined through a blend of ranking points and observations by committee members.

Class AAA

Holy Ghost Prep
La Salle
St. Joseph’s Prep
Malvern Prep
Salesianum

Class AA

Council Rock South
Haverford High
Pennridge
North Penn
Spring-Ford

Class A

1 West Chester Henderson

2 Garnett Valley

3 Kennett

4 Hershey

5 West Chester East

Girls

1 Avon Grove

2 Downingtown West

3 Conestoga

4 Kingsway

5 West Chester Hendersom

La Salle 6 Hun School 0

The La Salle Explorers went about their business one step at a time Wednesday afternoon. The results were impressive, a 6-0 win over The Hun School in an APAC matchup at Hatfield Ice Arena.

Grant LaGreca and Michael Zarzycki scored two goals each as La Salle improved to 5-2 on the season and 3-1 at the midway point in its APAC campaign.

LaGreca, a senior, cited the Explorers’ stick-to-basics approach.

“We’re just trying to focus on playing the right way,” he said. “Focusing on the D-zone, not cheating the game. Just kind of letting the hockey gods reward us with goals and playing good.”

It was LaGreca who got things started when he beat Raider netminder Patrick Donoghue just 45 seconds into the opening period. Zarzycki provided the setup before initiating a three-goal blitz with a shorthanded effort 69 seconds into the second frame. LaGreca followed up with a power-play effort at 4:57 before Zarzycki scored his second goal the game with 1:35 left in the middle period.

Hun School coach Eric Szeker the Raiders (0-2-1, 0-1 in the APAC) was hurt by a slow start.

“We were kind of running in quicksand for a bit there,” he said. “It was only 1-0 after the first. We just couldn’t find our game.

“It is what it is. We’re three games onto the season, we’ve got a young team [there were five underclassmen in the Hun School lineup) so, a lot to learn. We get to play again Friday, so we’re going to reset and look forward to that one.”

Because of school policy and NJSIAA regulations the Raiders start their season later than the other four APAC schools. But Szeker refused to cite scheduling issues as contributing to Wednesday’s result.

“We’ve been on the ice a couple weeks,” he said, “so, we should have a pretty good idea of what we want to do.

“I think of lot of credit goes to La Salle and [Coach Wally Muehlbronner] and what they have going on over there. They’ve got several lined that can play, they have a lot of good defensemen and a good goalie. We just ran into a good team today.”

Muehlbronner himself gave his team high marks.

“I thought we played well,” he said. “We came out hard, moved the puck well, all four lines played well, the D played well.”

LaGreca said efforts like Wednesday’s allow the veterans on the roster to set a standard for their teammates to emulate.

“All the returning seniors just want to show the younger guys and the new guy how to play the game and how to play the right way,” he said. “Because we’ve been there before.

• Jake Rossi earned the shutout in goal with 20 saves.

Hun School 0 0 0—0

La Salle 1 4 1—6

First-period goals: Grant LaGreca (L) from Michael Zarzycki, :45

Second-period goals: Zarzycki (L) unassisted, 1:09 (sh); LaGreca (L) from Zarzycki, 4:57 (pp); Zarzycki (L) from Tristan Mitchell and Declan Kelly, 15:25; Alastair St. Hilaire (L) from Noel Donohue and Luca Staffieri 16:58

Third-period goal: Julian Tarsi (L) from Staffieri and Donohue 10:50

Shots: Hun School 20, La Salle 54; Saves: Patrick Donoghue (HS) 48, Jake Rossi (L) 20

La Salle 3 Malvern Prep 2

Jacob Warner’s goal with 8:28 left in regulation proved decisive as La Salle topped Malvern Prep 3-2 Wednesday night in an APAC game at Ice Line.

Grant LaGreca and Nole Donohue also scored goals for the Explorers who improved to 2-1 in conference play and 3-1 overall.

LaGreca’s goal gave La Salle a 1-0 lead with eight seconds remaining in the opening period. Henry Tesoriero tied the game for the Friars (2-2, 1-1 in conference) with 3:40 remaining in the middle period.

Donohue’s goal came with 13:20 left in regulation time off a feed from Declan Kelly and gave the Explorers the lead for good. Warner’s goal extended his team’s lead but Teague Murray scored a power play goal with 6:04 remaining while Alistair St. Hilaire was in the box serving a roughing minor.

From that point on, La Salle goaltender Jake Rossi was resolute in goal despite being under pressure; he made 19 saves in the third period.

La Salle 1 0 2—3

Malvern Prep 0 1 1—2

First-period goal: Grant LaGreca (L) unassisted, 16:52

Second-period goal: Henry Tesoriero (MP) from Gabe Bedwell and Logan Love, 13:20

Third-period goals: Nole Donohue (L) from Declan Kelly, 3:49; Jacob Warner (L) from Michael Zarzycki, 8:32; Teague Murray (MP) from Cole Scrabinsky, 10:56 (pp)

Shots: La Salle 31, Malvern Prep 40; Saves: Jake Rossi (L) 38, Matt Crawford (MP) 28

SHSHL Update 11-26-24

National Division W L T PTS OTW OTL

C.R. South (5-1) 4 0 0 15 2 0

Cent. Bucks South (4-2) 4 1 0 14 2 0

North Penn (4-1) 3 1 0 12 0 0

Pennridge (3-1) 2 1 0 9 0 1

Souderton (2-2) 2 1 0 8 0 0

C.R. North (2-3) 2 3 0 8 0 0

Pennsbury (1-4) 1 3 0 6 0 2

Neshaminy (2-2) 1 2 0 4 0 0

C.B. East (1-4) 1 3 0 4 0 0

C.B. West (0-5) 0 3 0 0 0 0

American Division W L T PTS OTW OTL

Plymouth Whitemarsh (3-0) 2 0 0 8 0 0

Wissahickon (2-2) 2 1 0 8 0 0

Hatboro-Horsham (2-2) 2 1 0 7 1 0

Springfield (1-2) 1 2 0 5 0 1

Abington (0-3 ) 0 3 0 0 0 0

National Division Scoring G A Pts

Shane Dachwski Pr 11 9 20

Jackson Accardi CRN 12 8 20

Ivan Bondra CRN 10 4 14

James Rush Pr 7 7 14

Cole Pluck NP 3 10 13

Anthony Dowd CBW 7 5 12

Samuel Norton NP 5 7 12

Jake Weiner CRS 9 2 11

Nolan Shingle(NP) 8 3 11

James Boyle NP 6 5 11

American Division Scoring G A Pts

Dan Guller PW 1 8 9

Cooper Kanze PW 7 1 8

Ben Raebiger Wiss 6 2 8

Victor Wilkins HH 6 2 8

Blake Ambler PW 4 3 7

Vincent Graziani HH 4 3 7

Nathan Nemchinov HH 4 3 7

Devon Prep 4 Hun School 3

The Raiders dropped a one-goal decision to the visiting Tide on Thursday in their season opener at Ice Land. Anders Van Raalte, Lucas Jean, and Justin Bibeau scored the Hun School goals.

“Overall I’m happy with our first game as a group,” said Hun School coach Eric Szeker. “We got better as the game went along and ran into a very hot goaltender.”

Henderson 8 Downingtown East 3

West Chester Henderson scored five unanswered goals in the third period on the way to an 8-3 win over Downingtown East Monday night in a battle of ICSHL Ches-Mont League unbeatens at Ice Line.

Blake Platz scored four goals for the Warriors, who improved to 4-0 overall and 3-0 in the Ches-Mont. Nick Denadai, Cole Navazio, Anthony Barthol, and Andrew Denny all scored single goals for Henderson, which broke the game open after taking a 3-2 lead into the third period. Hunter Haas added four assists.

Brody Matthews scored a goal for Downingtown East (4-1, 1-1) and added two assists.

“Tonight game was a great win for the Henderson program,” said Warrior coach Tom Aughey. The group played hard and stuck to the game plan.”

Denny gave the Warriors a quick lead just 21 seconds into the opening period. Anderson Frain tied the game for the Cougars at the 7:04 mark.

Platz scored a pair of goals 22 seconds apart early in the second frame to give the Warriors a 3-1 lead. Christian McCuch scored for the Cougars to make it a one-goal game with 3:14 left in the period but Platz completed a hat trick 3:01 into the final period to spark a barrage of five goals in a span pf 11 minutes, 5 seconds. That spurt included Platz’s fourth goal of the night which came with 2:54 remaining.

Aughey said the key to the win was the play of goaltender Matthew Cieslukowski in the second period when the senior made seven of his 17 saves.

“The score was not indicative of the play within the game” Aughey said. “It was a big game from Matt. “He came up with plenty of big saves in the second to hold the lead for us.

“Platz and Haas took control in the third and we buried the opportunities we had.”

West Chester Henderson 1 2 5—8

Downingtown East 1 1 1—3

First-period goals: Andrew Denny (H) from Hunter Haas, :21; Anderson Frain (DE) from Christian McCuch and Brody Matthews, 7:04

Second-period goals: Blake Platz (H) from Declan Herr and Nicholas Denadai, 1:02; Platz (H) from Haas and Andrew Denny, 1:24; McCutch (DE) from Matthew Latch and Matthews, 13:46 (pp)

Third-period goal: Platz (H) from Haas and Denny, 3:01; Anthony Barthol (H) from Harrison Aller and Herr, 5:53; Colin Navazio (H) from Declan Dowd, 7:55; Denaldi (H) from Platz and Denny, 11:35 (pp); Platz (H) from Haas, 14:06; Matthews (DE) from Latch, 15:40

Shots: West Chester Henderson 28, Downingtown East 20; Saves: Matthew Cieslukowski (H) 17, Lucas Fleuty (DE) 20

North Penn 6 Downingtown West 2

EAST GOSHEN TOWNSHIP—It was the sort of game one would expect to see during the second week of March as opposed to the third week of November. North Penn and Downingtown West demonstrated why they expect to be taken seriously in the weeks and months to come.

For the record, the Knights prevailed 6-2 in the SHSHL-ICSHL crossover matchup Friday night at Ice Line but the affair was much more closely contested than the score would indicate; it was a one-goal game until the closing minutes of the third period.

It was an evening the Knights celebrated their fourth consecutive victory of the young season, but North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis was quick to point out it was most of all an occasion to celebrate high-school hockey.

“I’m so glad we started doing the crossover games this year,” he said. “Downingtown East and C.B. South played last week, Boyertown-Pennridge and us and Downingtown West tonight.

“Heretofore, you don’t see these teams until March. It gives you an opportunity to play them and build high-school hockey in this area.”

Downingtown West coach Brett Mackel, who saw his team drop to 2-2 on the season, echoed those sentiments.

“I like that they added the crossover games this year,” he said. “Especially teams that we usually wouldn’t see until the Flyers Cup. It’s great having different teams come in, especially teams we’re not used to seeing.”

Sam Norton scored two goals for North Penn. Nolan Shingle was also credited with two goals while James Boyle produced a goal and an assist.

Goals from Bryce Schuler and Ryder Jones gave the Whippets a 2-1 lead 7:54 into the second period. Norton tied the game for North Penn with 2:18 left in the period and Boyle’s power-play goal 77 seconds later gave his team the lead for good at 3-2.

“I thought we came out a little flat,” Boyle said, “but then we picked it right back up. Then we got back on them.”

Shingle extended North Penn’s lead on a shot from the deep right wing with 6:29 left in regulation. His second goal was a power-play effort with 4:46 left after the Whippets were accessed a bench minor.

Norton added his second goal of the evening with two minutes to play when he lofted the puck from his own blue line into an empty net.

Aidan Quigley earned the win in goal with 26 saves, many of them achieved with heavy traffic in his field of view.

Mackel felt his team performed well in some areas but was lacking in others.

“We had a lot of penalty kills that we ended up killing off,” he said. We gave up two power-play goals, but other than that our kill was good.

Our goaltender [Justin Adams] gave up two power-play goals but he played pretty well.

“Negatives. We didn’t shoot the puck as much as we needed to tonight. Our defensive zone was pretty sloppy.”

North Penn 1 2 3—6

D-Town West 0 2 0—2

First-period goal: Gabriel Dunn (NP) from Aidan Quigley, 2:48

Second-period goals: Bryce Schuler (DW) from Ryder Jones, :44; Jones (DW) from Reed Surak, 7:54; Sam Norton (NP) from Chase Kelly Del Ricci, 14:42; James Boyle (NP) from Norton and Luke Haftel. 15:59

Third-period goals: Nolan Shingle (MP) from Cole Pluck, 10:31; Shingle (NP) from Boyle and Pluck, 12:16 (pp); Norton (NP) unassisted, 15:00 (en)

Shots: North Penn 35, Downingtown West 28; Saves: Aidan Quigley (NP) 26, Justin Adams (DW) 29

SHSHL Update 11-12-24

National Division W L T PTS OTW OTL

North Penn (2-0) 2 0 0 8 0 0

Cent. Bucks South (2-1) 2 0 0 7 1 0

C.R. South (2-0) 2 0 0 7 1 0

Pennridge (1-1) 1 1 0 5 0 1

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

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

C.R. South (1-1) 1 1 0 4 0 0

C.B. East (1-2) 1 2 0 4 0 0

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

C.B. West (0-2) 0 2 0 0 0 0

American Division W L T PTS OTW ORL

Plymouth Whitemarsh 1 0 0 4 0 0

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

Hatboro-Horsham (1-1) 1 1 0 3 1 0

Springfield 0 0 1 0 0 1

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

Scoring G A Pts

Jackson Accardi CRN 5 4 9

Shane Dachwski Pr 7 2 9

Shane Hicks Pb 3 6 9

Dan McGlathin CRN 5 2 7

Jeff Kvecher CBS 2 4 6

Peter Perberow CRS 1 5 6

James Rush Pr 1 5 6