North Penn fell to Downingtown East 4-1 in Friday's Flyers Cup final. To view photos of the action, please visit the Photo Gallery.
By Ben Reese
HATFIELD -- North Penn ran into something it hadn't faced all year - a relentless defense that was all but impenetrable.
The Knights had been able to score almost at will throughout the Suburban High School Hockey League season, the SHSHL playoffs and the Flyers Cup tournament. In their semifinal win over Ridley, they had scored five goals on only 16 shots.
But in Friday’s Flyers Cup final, they ran into Downingtown East. The 13th-ranked Cougars blanked the No. 3 Knights for just about the entire game, allowing only a power play goal in the second period en route to a 4-1 victory. The Cougars won the coveted Flyers Cup and earned a trip to Penn State to play for the PIAA championship.
"They're a very talented team," North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis said. "They kind of caught the Flyers Cup by storm.
"They have a lot of talented players. They have a strong defense back there."
That strong defense hounded North Penn's top line of Alex Peterson, Jake Heckenberger and Spencer Silver all night. That threesome never really got anything going offensively.
It didn’t help that the Knights were shorthanded against Downingtown East. Their best defenseman and their starting center were both suspended for the game because of penalties incurred against Ridley.
Their absence, however, was not the reason North Penn lost. They were defensed very well.
Defenseman Matt Fox, who scored the only Knights goal, was impressed.
"That's probably the best group of defensemen we've seen all year," Fox said. "Those guys (North Penn's first line) are used to being able to angle around people and do whatever they want, but they couldn't do that tonight.
"They just really had good defensemen. That's what shut our guys down tonight."
Because of East’s stingy defense, North Penn didn't get many shots on goal. In fact, the Knights only had two in the first period and didn't get their first until nearly 12 minutes had elapsed in the opening stanza.
They finished with 17 shots on goal, one more than they had in the win over Ridley. But their shots on Friday couldn't find the net.
"The difference between Wednesday and tonight was that we had 16 shots (against Ridley) and 10 of them were right in front of their goalie," Fox said. "All of our shots (tonight) except the one I put in the net were from outside the dots. We've got to get more chances inside to win a game like this."
"We've got to get more shots on net," Vaitis added. "They blocked a number of shots.
"Every time the puck got on our stick, they had somebody on us. We didn't have a lot of time with the puck on our stick.
"They did a really good job of shutting (the first line) down. They're talented players -- Silver, Peterson and Heckenberger -- but they did a good job against them overall."
The first period was scoreless, though East carried much of the offense. Roberts and the North Penn defense kept the puck out of the net.
The Knights struck first in the second period. Fox jammed in a rebound of a Jared Barkley shot on the power play to give North Penn a 1-0 lead with only 1:26 gone in the period.
Downingtown East didn't waste much time getting right back into the game. The Cougars tied the game with 4:31 gone on a Justin Cohn goal.
The Cougars continued their assault on Roberts and the North Penn goal in the third. Jonathan Carreiro gave them a 2-1 lead at the 6:16 mark of the period.
Then, with 12:18 elapsed, Fox was called for a high sticking penalty, giving East a power play.
The Cougars cashed in as Bobby Kiefer scored 59 seconds later.
"That third one really hurt us," Vaitis said. "It took a little bit of wind out of our sails."
Fox wasn't happy that he was in the penalty box when East scored its third goal.
"The late penalty by me really killed us in the end," he said, taking responsibility. "It's a tough way to lose."
The final goal of the game was scored by Luca Pisani shorthanded and into an empty net.
Peterson and Heckenberger were named to the Flyers Cup all-tournament team. East's Joey Kubachka was named the MVP and also won the scoring title.
Downingtown East 4, North Penn 1
Downingtown East 0 1 3 -- 4
North Penn 0 1 0 -- 1
First period: No scoring.
Second period: Matt Fox NP (Jared Barkley) 1:26 PP; Justin Cohn DE (Thomas Rocco) 4:31.
Third period: Jonathan Carreiro DE (Joey Kubachka) 6:16; Bobby Keifer DE (Rocco, Cohn) 13:17 PP; Luca Pisani DE (unassisted) 16:09 SH PP.
Shots: DE 41, NP 17. Saves: Jeff Cummings (DE) 16; John Roberts (NP) 36.
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