This week’s ice hockey notebook recaps some of last week’s big games and highlights the conference races.
By Mike Prince, Sportswriter
With the Suburban High School Hockey League regular season winding down, teams in the middle of the pack are still fighting for their respective playoff spots.
One team in particular, Souderton, has a playoff spot locked up, but is still fighting for a home playoff game.
The Indians took a giant step towards reaching that goal following an 8-5 win over Council Rock North last Friday at Warwick Ice Arena.
Souderton’s top line of Daniel Rock, Alex Politsky and Clay Anders did what it has been doing all season and completely dominated offensively, combining on seven goals while leading the Indians (10-6-0) to the victory.
“Daniel was excellent,” Souderton coach Matt Montagna said. “Everywhere he went, he was excellent. His whole line is great. Everything he did that game worked, and it paid off for him. He was really aggressive. All year long, the three of them have been excellent and have been beating up on everybody. They complement each other very nice.”
Rock led the way with four goals and two assists, while Politsky finished with two goals and four assists. Anders added a goal and an assist, while Chris Malanga scored the other goal for Souderton, which will play Council Rock South this Thursday night in its final league game of the season.
“We’re in the playoffs,” Montagna said, “but we’re hoping for a home playoff game. That’s what we’re after. We’re trying to lock down that fourth spot. Going into CR North and coming out with a win was huge for our guys. It was very intense and a very physical game. This year they seem to be finally able to pull these games out, and that’s good for the program.”
Souderton currently sits in third place in the Continental Conference behind Central Bucks South and North Penn.
Pennridge, another Continental Conference team, may be lower down the totem pole as far as the standings are concerned, but the Rams have been playing very well, winning four games in a row over the last two weeks.
After two consecutive 13-1 wins over Hatboro-Horsham and Lower Moreland, the Rams sit at 7-8-0 overall and are fighting for a final playoff spot.
“We have a very slim chance of getting in,” Pennridge coach Larry Wheatley said. “It depends on a few teams ahead of us. We’ve been playing well, but we’re playing some of the weaker teams.
“We’re doing great after losing Matt Brown and some of the guys from last year, so it’s nice to see the players fill that void.”
In the win over the Hatters, Pennridge received three goals and three assists from Leland Stockman, as well as three goals and from Kyle Henofer.
“Kyle and Leland are such a huge part of our team right now,” Wheatley said. “If they don’t play well, we don’t play well. Our defense is solid, but we’re still young and we make mistakes here and there. We can’t afford to make those mistakes against teams like North Penn. We lost 12 seniors from last year’s team and it took a pretty big hit on us, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen.”
One team that should have a playoff spot secured is Wissahickon, an American Conference team that is in fourth place.
After losses to Upper Moreland and Lansdale Catholic, the Trojans rebounded nicely and defeated Central Bucks West by a score of 7-3 last Friday in a non-conference meeting at Flyers SkateZone in Vorhees, NJ.
Dustin Rabinowitz (two goals, three assists) and Luke Honorowski (two goals) led the way for the Trojans (8-4-1), who are one point behind the Crusaders in the standings.
The Trojans will host Archbishop Wood this Wednesday before finishing up their regular season with in-conference games at Plymouth Whitemarsh and Upper Dublin next week.
In the National Conference, CR South sits above all other teams with 22 points and an 11-5-0 record, but the Golden Hawks are still trying to fight off Abington (10-5-1), which has climbed all the way up the standings and is only one point back.
And while Abington and CR South will face each other in a regular season finale next Thursday night, the Golden Hawks still have to take on Souderton this Thursday and CR North next Wednesday in hopes that they can hold onto that No. 1 spot and control their own destiny before what could be a huge meeting with the Ghosts.
The meeting between the Ghosts and the Golden Hawks will be a rematch of last Wednesday’s bout between the two National Conference squads, which ended with a come-from-behind win for Abington, which defeated CR North by a score of 10-9 at Bucks County Ice Sports Arena.
“We should be able to lock up the top spot with a couple wins, but we played Abington last week and they beat us,” CR South coach Joe Houk said. “They’re a very good team and a surprising team. I think they are very deceiving and they have a lot of talent and I give them all the credit in the world.”
The loss to the Ghosts wasn’t just your average defeat either. The Golden Hawks led 3-1 after one period of play and even went up by scores of 6-1 and 7-2 in the second period. And when a first-place team leads 7-2 at the mid-point of a game, you would think the issue wouldn’t be in doubt, but Abington’s Paul Abendroth and Erik Walther had different plans.
“We just fell apart,” Houk said.
Abington scored the final three goals in the second period, one by Jack Higgins and two by Abendroth. In the third, James Campbell scored once, Walther scored three goals by himself in a span of two minutes and 11 seconds, and with the game tied in the final minute, Abendroth put in a shorthanded goal to lead the Ghosts to the remarkable comeback win.
The final goal came with 25 seconds remaining, and gave the Ghosts five goals in a span of five minutes and 44 seconds to end the game.
“It’s hard to keep these kids grounded, so hopefully this ends up being a learning experience,” Houk said. “In a way, it can keep them humble and make them take these games more seriously. We’ll keep rolling and take the good with the bad. It was a combination of things and I didn’t reprimand anybody. It was more of a football score than anything, but my guys keep talking about the next time we’re going to play them, so I have to tell them to take it one game at a time.”
In the win, Abington was outshot 47-34. Walther finished with four goals and three assists to lead the Ghosts, while Abendroth added his hat trick. Campbell added four assists to his one goal. Alexander Drobot scored four times to pace CR south.
Abington will face William Tennent this Thursday night at Wintersports Ice Arena before playing the Golden Hawks next week.
In other Suburban One League games this week, Pennridge and North Penn will meet at Hatfield Blue Arena on the same night.
LC and Plymouth Whitemarsh meet at Hatfield Blue on Wednesday night, while Upper Moreland Truman will meet at Grundy Rink A on Thursday night. Also on Thursday, Neshaminy and Central Bucks West will play at Hatfield Blue Arena, while Hatboro-Horsham and Upper Dublin will meet at Wintersports Ice Arena.
- Log in to post comments
