CB West defeated Bensalem in SHSHL ice hockey action Wednesday. Ben Reese recaps the action. Photos provided courtesy of Keith Clemens Photography. All SOS photo galleries for ICE HOCKEY can be viewed by clicking HERE.
By Ben Reese
HATFIELD — An ice hockey goalie is supposed to stop the puck. That’s his primary job.
He isn’t supposed to allow goals to be scored against him and his team. However, sometimes, the number of goals scored doesn’t represent the way the goalie played.
Liam Rogers of Central Bucks West stopped 28 of 31 shots taken against him by Bensalem. Obviously, he missed three of them.
But that was more than enough to lead the Bucks to a 5-3 victory over the Owls in a Suburban High School Hockey League game at Hatfield Ice on Wednesday night.
In fact, according to his coach, Dave Baun, Rogers saved a lot more than the 28 shots.
He saved the game.
“He saved at least four goals,” said Baun. “They should have been goals. Any other goalie, they would have been goals.
“He’s pretty spectacular for sure. He’s a game-changer.”
Rogers made one save in the second period while lying on his back in the goal crease. He made at least three saves in the third period with the Owls on his doorstep.
Rogers came away from the game with a new amount of respect for Bensalem.
“I heard rumors that they weren’t the best team,” he said. “It was obviously not true.
“I think they were pretty good. It was close the whole game. I went into the game like ‘It’s going to be a breeze.’ I didn’t expect them to score that many goals. I knew they would get shots, but I didn’t think they would be that high quality of shots.”
Bensalem coach Jordan Roth went along with Rogers’ assessment.
“We didn’t get the bounces tonight,” he said. “But we certainly had our shots.
“The bounces didn’t go our way tonight. I think a couple of our shots could have gone into the net.”
In all, the Owls outshot the Bucks 31-23. And the game was tied at 1-1 going into the third period.
But suddenly both offenses woke up. West netted four goals and Bensalem two in the final period.
The Bucks had taken the lead in the first stanza. Luke Tremmell, with assists from Adam Ricci and Nicholas Bruno, beat Owl net-minder Ricky Gonzalez with 13:39 gone in the period.
Bensalem came back to knot the score in the second. Alex Hood put one past Rogers at the 11:53 mark of the period with an assist from Brandon Stahl.
Things really opened up in the third period.
West got on the board first as Bruno scored at 6:24. Sammy Poliak added another West goal on the power play at the 9:18 mark to give the Bucks a 3-1 margin. Bruno and Zane Sanders provided the assists.
But the Owls, who played the entire game with a short bench, wouldn’t quit. Hood scored his second goal to bring Bensalem within one at 3-2, using an Alex Bazylevich assist.
Sanders (Tremmell assist) upped the West lead to 4-2 with his goal at 12:56, but 50 seconds later Bazylevich again cut the lead down to one with a goal assisted by Hood. Anthony Dowd finished up the scoring for the Bucks with an unassisted goal with only10 seconds left in the game.
While Rogers got the win and deservedly so, Bensalem’s Gonzalez also played an excellent game. Both coaches praised his play.
But in the end, it was Rogers taking home the win.
And Baun knows just how much he was needed.
“Obviously we have a fairly inexperienced team,” he said. “We make a lot of mistakes.
“But having a good goalie covers a lot of mistakes. When we have Liam in goal, we’re great.”
CB West 5, Bensalem 3
Bensalem 0 1 2 — 3
CB West 1 0 4 — 5
First period: 1, Luke Tremmell CBW (Adam Ricci, Nicholas Bruno) 13:39.
Second period: 2, Alex Hood B (Brandon Stahl) 11:53.
Third period: 3, Bruno CBW (Tremmell) 6:24; 4, Sammy Poliak CBW (Bruno, Zane Sanders) 9:18 PP; 5, Hood B (Alex Bazylevich) 11:33; 6, Sanders CBW (Tremmell) 12:56; 7, Bazylevich B (Hood) 13:46; 8, Anthony Dowd CBW (unassisted)16:50.
Shots: B 31, CBW 23
Saves: Ricky Gonzalez (B) 18, Liam Rogers (CBW) 28.
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