CB South, CB West & North Penn were winners in Flyers Cup action on Wednesday. To view photos from the CB West/Downingtown West, North Penn/Abington, CB South/Spring-Ford, and CR South/Downingtown East games, please visit our photo gallery...CLICK HERE or on any photo below.
By Ben Reese
HATFIELD -- There's a saying in ice hockey circles that you can ride a hot goalie all the way to a championship.
That's what Central Bucks West's ice hockey team is hoping to do.
The Bucks are riding hot goalie Jonah Brous after their first game of the Flyers Cup, a 4-1 victory over Downingtown West at Hatfield Ice on Wednesday night.
Brous blanked the Whippets through the first two periods and for nearly 14 minutes of the third period before allowing a goal, and it wasn't a walk in the park as he faced 30 shots.
"Brous has been solid all season long for us," said CB West coach Dave Baun. "Tonight he was very, very solid in front of the puck."
The Bucks’ coach has heard that old chestnut about the hot goalie, too. And he agrees.
"We absolutely can,” Baun said. "We've played teams that have gone a long way with a good goaltender. We have a good goaltender so we hope that we can go a long way."
Brous wasn't as impressed with his performance as his coach was.
"What are you going to do," he said of losing the shutout with 2:10 left in the third period. "A win's a win.
"A shutout would have been great, but I'm not focused on that. I've been playing pretty good hockey. I've just got to keep focused."
But both coach and goalie know that just it isn't only one player that wins games.
"The D's always a big help," Brous said. "They made my job much easier tonight. I just had to make the saves that I needed to and it made it pretty easy on me.
"It's not just me, you know. It's a team effort. If I'm playing good, that helps the team. I can't do it all by myself."
Baun looked at it from another angle.
"Ten years ago, we had 15 seniors; this year we have four," he said. "There's not a lot of experience out here.
"But we've got a very good goaltender, very good defense and our forwards are defensive minded and they cover the middle lane very well."
All those things worked nearly to perfection against Downingtown West. Brous took care of stopping the puck, the defense kept the puck from the front of the net and the offense got all the goals the team would need.
Patrick Smith got the Bucks started, scoring with 3:39 gone in the first period. But it was a three-goal explosion in the second period that put the game out of reach.
Shawn Phillips scored what proved to be the game-winner at the 4:01 mark of the second. That was followed by goals from Ramsey Sayers and Luke McCleerey with McCleerey’s goal coming on a power play.
Only a late goal in the third period by Downingtown West's Chris Fabry spoiled Brous' bid for the shutout.
In that third period, the Whippets had a goal disallowed early in the period. Later in the period, the Bucks killed off a two-man advantage for Downingtown West with hardly any action for Brous.
CB West 4, Downingtown West 1
Downingtown West 0 0 1 – 1
CB West 1 3 0 – 4
First period: Patrick Smith CBW (John McCreadie, Scotty Cappuccio) 3:39.
Second period: Shawn Phillips CBW (Ryan Trefz, McCreadie) 4:01; Ramsey Sayers CBW (Griffin Shields, Tanner Ginn) 12:59; Luke McCleerey CBW (McCreadie) 15:09 PP.
Third period: Chris Fabry DW (Erik Regan, Joseph Fetzer) 13:50.
Shots: DW 26; CBW 37. Saves: John Kelly (DW) 33; Jonah Brous (CBW) 25.
#3 NORTH PENN 11, #14 ABINGTON 1
HATFIELD -- North Penn's top line exploded for four goals in the first 4:32 of the first period and gave the Knights the quick lead.
Abington never recovered.
Jake Heckenberger and Alex Peterson each scored two goals in those opening minutes, but they weren't finished as Heckenberger added two more goals and Peterson one later in the game.
That sudden outburst took the heart out of the Ghosts. And fueled the Knights on into the next round of the Flyers Cup.
"This was a good start for us," North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis said. "We haven't played since last Monday when we lost to Tennent in the first round of the Suburban League playoffs so to come out and jump on them early was key for us.
"We had a game plan. We were able to execute that and jump out to the 4-0 lead."
Abington coach Pat Croce knew in those first few minutes that his team had a hard road to travel.
"Our goalie's done a really great job for most of the year," the Ghosts’ coach said. "This is his first Flyers Cup appearance.
"I think he did a really great job battling back and facing the adversity, but with four goals quickly, the emotions take over, you tighten up a little. It's disheartening but you learn from it."
But it all came back to the top North Penn line of Heckenberger, Peterson and Derek Heckler. Heckenberger finished the game with his four goals and two assists; Peterson had three goals and two assists; and Heckler added two assists.
"You've got that line of Heckler, Heckenberger and Peterson and they're able to put the puck in the net quickly," said Vaitis. "In their first shift, they scored two goals in the first minute and that was a huge start for us."
Peterson said that was part of the Knights' game plan.
"We wanted to get on them early, score a lot quick and put pressure on the whole game," he said. "A 10-goal game in the first game of the Flyers Cup really produces confidence."
North Penn followed the four-goal opening period with four more in the second. In addition to Peterson's third goal, Ryan Nowicki, Jaime Greene and Spencer Silver also scored Alex DeCristofano netted Abington's lone goal late in the period.
The Knights finished the game with three goals in the third to end the game early. Heckenberger scored his final two markers and Jared Barkley tallied the 11th goal of the game for North Penn, which advanced into Monday’s quarterfinal round.
North Penn 11, Abington 1
Abington 0 1 0 – 1
North Penn 4 4 3 – 11
First Period: Jake Heckenberger NP (Derek Heckler) 0:24; Alex Peterson NP (unassisted) 0:31; Peterson NP (Heckenberger, Heckler) 2:05; Heckenberger NP
(Austin Redilla) 4:32 PP.
Second period: Ryan Nowick NP (Jared Barkley, Spencer Silver) 2:21 PP; Alex DeCristofano A (Brian Scipione, Ryan Woelbl) 4:02; Silver NP (Peterson, Heckenberger) 5:59 PP; Jaime Greene NP (Redilla) 13:14; Peterson NP (unassisted) 14:49.
Third period: Heckenberger NP (Nowicki) 2:54 PP; Heckenberger NP (Peterson, Nowicki) 3:15 PP; Barkley NP (Matt Fox) 12:12.
Shots: A 22; NP 29. Saves: Thomas Meehan (A) 18; Jake Snyder (NP) 21.
#13 DOWNINGTOWN EAST 6, #4 COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 2
The 13th-seeded Cougars pulled off the upset of a young Flyers Cup Tournament with their win over Rock South. The Golden Hawks were ultimately doomed by a four-goal Cougar outburst in the second period.
In an omen of things to come, the Cougars got on the scoreboard at the 10:58 mark of the opening period on a goal by Thomas Rocco. Things went downhill in a hurry in a second period that saw East’s Joey Kubachka and Ben Robertson score back-to-back goals in a two-minute span early in the frame to put the Cougars on top 3-1.
Joe Marcella (Kyle Bradley assists) broke the Cougars’ run with a goal, but East closed out the period with goals by Alex Fox and Kubachka to take a 5-1 lead into the final period.
Darren Barder (Austin Price assist) found the net to make it a 5-2 game early in the third period, but Kubachka closed out the scoring with his third goal of the night.
Downingtown East held a 25-23 advantage in shots. East goalie Jeff Cummings turned away 21 of 23 shots he faced in a winning effort.
GAME DETAILS
SCORING
13 Downingtown East 1 4 1 6
04 Council Rock South 0 1 1 2
SHOTS
13 Downingtown East 6 9 10 25
04 Council Rock South 5 11 7 23
POWERPLAYS
13 Downingtown East 0 for 7: 04 Council Rock South 0 for 1
SCORING SUMMARY
Period 1
13 Downingtown East - Thomas Rocco (Bobby Kiefer) 10:58
Period 2
13 Downingtown East - Joey Kubachka (Kyle Raciti) 1:33
13 Downingtown East - Ben Robertson (Jack MaGee) 3:08
04 Council Rock South - Joe Marcella (Kyle Bradley) 3:40
13 Downingtown East - Alex Fox (Collin Harple) 8:46
13 Downingtown East - Joey Kubachka (Thomas Rocco, Ben Robertson) 14:16
Period 3
04 Council Rock South - Darren Barder (Austin Price) 3:26
13 Downingtown East - Joey Kubachka (Luca Pisani, Alex Fox) 4:51
GOALIES
1 Jeff Cummings WIN 48:00 23 21
30 Mason Procz LOSS 48:00 25 19
33 Christian George (b)
PENALTY TOTALS
13 Downingtown East 10 minutes on 5 infraction(s) 04 Council Rock South 28 minutes on 10 infraction(s)
#1 CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 5, #17 SPRING-FORD 0
The Titans put on the kind of performance befitting the tournament’s top seed, bursting out of the gate with a four-goal first period on their way to the no-doubt-about-it win.
Leo Flick put the Titans on the scoreboard 1:25 into the game, using a Damon Delaurentis assist. Two minutes later, Jackson Wetherebee (Brian Uzelac assist) found the net, and then it was Jared Conroy (Uzelac assist) and Anthony Rubas (Matthew Stoll assist) connecting, and before the game was nine minutes old, the Titans led 4-0.
A goal by Flick (Stoll/Delaurentis assists) at the 6:04 mark of the second period closed out the scoring for the night.
Aaron King was credited with 10 saves in the shutout in a contest that saw the Titans hold a lopsided 48-10 advantage in shots. Only the 43-save effort of Adam Panzarella kept the final score from being more lopsided.
The Titans advanced to Monday’s quarterfinal round.
GAME DETAILS
SCORING
17 Springford 0 0 0 0
01 Central Bucks South 4 1 0 5
SHOTS
17 Springford 4 4 2 10
01 Central Bucks South 12 19 17 48
POWERPLAYS
17 Springford 0 for 2 : 01 Central Bucks South 0 for 0
SCORING SUMMARY
Period 1
01 Central Bucks South - Leo Flick (Damon Delaurentis) 1:25
01 Central Bucks South - Jackson Wetherbee (Brian Uzelac) 3:21
01 Central Bucks South - Jared Conroy (Brian Uzelac) 5:01
01 Central Bucks South - Anthony Rubas (Matthew Stoll) 8:55
Period 2
01 Central Bucks South - Leo Flick (Matthew Stoll, Damon Delaurentis) 6:04
Period 3
(no scoring)
GOALIES
33 Adam Panzarella LOSS 48:00 48 43
30 Aaron King WIN 48:00 10 10
PENALTY TOTALS
17 Springford 0 minutes on 0 infraction(s) 01 Central Bucks South 4 minutes on 2 infraction(s)
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