H-H 9 Wissahickon 6

It all came together for Hatboro-Horsham Friday night at a most opportune moment. Nate Nemchinov scored three goals and added an assist while three other players delivered to goals each. The result was a 9-6 win over Wissahickon in a SHSHL American Division matchup at the Bucks County Ice Sports Center.

The result leaves the Hatters two points clear of the Trojans in the battle for second and third places in the division standings, the last two playoff positions (Plymouth Whitemarsh has already clinched first place).

The two teams both have 7-6 divisional records (both are 7-7 overall) but Hatboro-Horsham has the edge because two of its divisional losses came in overtime.

Nemchinov noted it was a night when all the pieces fit from the Hatters’ point of view.

“We were just playing a team game,” he said, “getting pucks deep and winning board battles. Just doing the little things right and those little things created goals.

The goals came fat and furious early on. The Hatters’ Will Moffa and the Trojans’ Aiden Brooks took turns finding the back of the net before Nemchinov won a pair of battles for loose picks saw him score twice himself and put his team up 3-1 after 17 minutes.

Hatboro-Horsham coach Shane Smith cited his team’s cohesiveness.

“We’ve had several talks with the team about what it takes to be a championship team and win,” he said. ‘I think they realized that some of the one-on-one type play wasn’t effective. Everyone made a strong commitment to come out and play a team game.”

The Hatters’ Vince Graziani and Wissahickon’ Logan Honeycutt traded goals to start the middle period before Victor Wilkins scored and Graziani added a second goal of his own to make it a 7-2 game after 34 minutes.

Joe Gambino offered a response for Wissahickon 79 seconds into the third period but Nemchinov and Moffa continued the Hatters’ goal-scoring barrage. It was 9-3 with 10:51 left in regulation before the Trojans finished the evening with three straight goals.

The final score made the game seem closer than it actually was.

“We showed up to the party much too late,” said Wissahickon coach James Rumsey. “Hatboro-Horsham wanted it more than we did tonight.”

Nemchinov say the Hatters will approach their three remaining games with a playoff mindset.

“They’re all must-win games,” he said. “We’ve got to play these games like they’re playoff games and keep doing the little thing right hopefully clinch the second seed.”

• The Hatters and Trojans will close the regular season against each other on February 19^th,

Hatboro-Horsham 3 4 2—9

Wissahickon 1 1 4—6

First-period goals: Will Moffa (HH) from Aiden North, 4:04; Aiden Brooks from Link Matozzo, 8:09; Nate Nemchinov (HH) unassisted, 11:52; Nemchinov (HH) from Reid Rochestie, 14:55

Second-period goals Vince Graziani (HH) from Connor Smith 1:42; Logan Honeycutt (HH) from Ben Raebiger, 2:56; Victor Wilkins (HH) from Brady Gurt, 3:22; Wilkins (HH) from Nemchinov, 6:36; Vince Graziani from North, 8:55

Third-period goals: Joe Gambino from Raebiger, 1:19: Nemchinov (HH) from Darius Graziani, 2:35 (pp); Moffa (HH) from Wilkins, 6:09; Gambino unassisted, 7:59, Gambino from Logan Dicus, 8:39; Brooks unassisted, 9:45

Shots: Hatboro-Horsham 39, Wissahickon 38 Saves: Eric Miller (HH) 32, Fletcher Lynch 30

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 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 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 40

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

Abington 10 Wissahickon 2

Call it Mission Accomplished

Abington took the ice against Wissahickon Friday night knowing a win, a tie, or an overtime loss would assure it of a slot in the SHSHL American Division playoffs.

The Galloping Ghosts went out and took care of business, posting a 10-2 win at the Bucks County Ice Sports Center.

The win lifted Abington to 5-3 in American Division play and 6-5 overall. More importantly. The Galloping Ghosts will join Plymouth Whitemarsh in the divisional playoffs on February 21 or 22 with the championship game set for February 28. The seeds of the three teams are still to be determined.

Wissahickon dropped to 2-11 overall and 2-9 in the division.

Leading 2-1 after the first frame, the Galloping Ghost broke the game open with six goals in the middle period against a young Wissahickon team that had just nine players in uniform.

Sam Abramson led the way for the victors with a four-goal effort. Shane Meltzer and Devin Bates added two goals each; Jude Large and Ben Biko also scored goals.

Abington coach Ken Brzozowski took advantage of the score line to give his younger skaters some extra ice time.

“It gave us the opportunity to play our third and fourth lines a little bit more,” he said. “It’s great to see them get some ice time. They’re working hard in practice. So, getting some real game opportunity experience is important.”

Officially earning a spot in the postseason with four regular-season games remaining will give Brzozowski’s troops a chance to refocus.

“We’re looking forward to it,” Brzoowski said. “Being able to make the playoffs again and have the opportunity to get some experience. Once you get there, you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Dryden Jaisle and Nolan Pounds scored goals for Wissahickon. Jaisle’s effort gave the Trojans a 1-0 lead 4:19 into the first period but Wissahickon was undermined by its youth and lack of manpower.

Trojan coach James Rumsey says his young team has had to grow up quickly.

“We have no seniors,” he said, “nobody graduating, so all these kids are going to be playing with us for the next two years at minimum.

“It’s definitely a young team, definitely a good group. We lost one of our guys to juniors this year and just another for the same reason. We have a little less players but a lot of heart.”

Wissahickon 1 1 0—2

Abington 2 6 2—10