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It was an unfamiliar situation for the Council Rock South ice hockey team -- trailing late in a game. And when the opposing goalkeeper is Council Rock North's stellar backstop Jessie Goldberg, mounting a comeback can be daunting even for the high-octane Golden Hawks' offense.
But there's a reason why the Hawks are undefeated on the season -- they refuse to lose.
And they did so again Thursday at Face-Off Circle, scoring three times in a 121-second span late in the third period to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 victory as the Hawks swept the series to claim the Varsity AA championship.
The Hawks led the hard-checking, tightly played game, 2-1, heading into the final stanza. But a power play goal through a screen by Mark McDonald knotted the score just over a minute into the period, and the Indians claimed the lead with 9:10 remaining when a partially blocked shot found its way to Tom Elmer, who slammed it in for a 3-2 lead.Council Rock South coach Joe Houk then called a timeout to calm down his team ... though "calm" may not be the operative word.
"They scored that go-ahead goal and I called timeout, you don't want to know what I said," Houk said with a laugh. "But it fired them up. They came back, and as soon as we scored that tying goal, you could kind of see (North) back off a little bit. We just drove it down their throat. We knew we had something there."
Peter Malamud tied the game with 3:52 left in regulation when he beat Goldberg high to the stick side off a setup from Pat Grilli. Just 15 seconds later, Grilli scored off a turnover in the North defensive end.
"Pete was in the corner, gave it to (Tyler) Deitrick, and there was someone next to him," Grilli said. "He just slid it to me and I had a wide open shot and scored."
The junior would add the insurance goal and complete the hat trick when he slammed home a loose rebound with 1:51 left in the game.
"Jessie is a great goalie," Grilli said. "I play with him in club hockey, and he's very good. He's one of the best goalies in the league, and it's tough to score on him. North is a good team, but they had a lot of breakdowns in the third period and we got a lot of goals off of them."
Indians coach Eric Tye echoed those sentiments.
"I thought we had them," Tye said. "When we got it to 3-2 with 5 minutes left, I thought we had them.
"I can probably count three of their goals off the top of my head that came off of our mistakes. There's the difference right there."
North jumped out to an early lead when Kyle Weitz scored off a two-on-one break on a pretty give-and-go play with Tim Kroh. The Hawks would knot the score at 1-1 before the end of the first on a dazzling solo effort by Deitrick while the teams were playing at four men aside.Grilli (Steve Junod assist) would net the only goal of the second period to give the Hawks a 2-1 lead, setting up the wild, five-goal third period.
The victory completes an undefeated league season for South, which will enter the Flyers Cup as the top-seeded Double-A team.
"I don't even know what to say," Grilli said. "It's just unbelievable to go undefeated all season. We're so excited for the Flyers Cup and we're going to come out hard there, too."
"You've got to give credit to Rock North," Houk added. "They wanted to win. They forechecked us so hard, they kept hitting and hitting. But the kids persevered. It was a good win. The kids stuck together defensively, offensively, Sean (Boyd, 24 saves) played an excellent game again. I'm really happy for the kids."
Of course, the season is not over for Council Rock North, either. The Indians will take the number two seed into the Flyers Cup tournament.
And who knows ... the top two seeds met in the league finals ... Tye is not ruling out yet another meeting between the neighborhood rivals before the season ends.
"The two best teams made it to the finals," Tye said. "The better team won. They take care of their half of the (Flyers Cup) bracket and we take care of our half, maybe we'll get another game."
Council Rock South 5, Council Rock North 3
CR South 1 1 3--5
CR North 1 0 2--3
1st period
CRN -- Kyle Weitz (Tim Kroh, Mark McDonald) 4:42
CRS -- Tyler Dietrick (unassisted) 9:44
2nd period
CRS-- Pat Grilli (Steve Junod) 6:10
3rd period
CRN-- Mark McDonald (Max Freeman), 1:09 Power Play
CRN-- Tom Elmer (Alex Lenninger) 5:50
CRS-- Pete Malamud (Grilli, A.J. Silvi) 11:08
CRS-- Grilli (Malamud, Dietrick) 11:23
CRS -- Grilli (Malamud, Dietrick) 13:51
Goaltending:
CRS-- Sean Boyd 26 shots 24 saves 2 goals allowed
CRN-- Jessie Goldberg 28 shots 23 saves 5 goals allowed
Wissahickon 8, Upper Dublin 4
Despite suffering what could have been a demoralizing 8-1 loss in the Varsity A championship series opener, Upper Dublin came out fighting in Thursday's second game, going blow for blow with Wissahickon for as long as the young Cardinals could.
But the strong, speedy Trojans proved to be too much for the Cards, scoring four goals in the third period to pull away for an 8-4 win and the Varsity A championship.
Pat Delaney and Sean Delaney each scored two goals to lead the Trojans. Joey Sutow, Pat Wilson, Zach Weiss and David Pataki each added one. For the Cardinals, Brian Markman, Jonathan Bebey, Gil Lederhandler and Robbie DeGregorio each netted a goal.
Trojans goalkeeper Adam Solomon made 16 saves, while Cards' freshman keeper Jack Deragon turned aside 27.
Wissahickon 8, Upper Dublin 4
Upper Dublin 2 0 2--4
Wissahickon 2 2 4--8
1st Period
W - Sean Delaney (Pat Wilson, Jeff Schaeffer) 13:57
W - Pat Wilson (David Ko) 9:54
UD Brian Markman (unassisted) 7:02
UD Gil Lederhandler (Power Play) (Ben Hoffmann, Brian Markman) 1:27
2nd Period
W Sean Delaney (unassisted) 14:01
W Pat Delaney (Jeff Schaeffer) 3:01
3rd Period
UD Robbie Degregorio (Jonathan Bebey, Tyler Freezman) 13:57
W David Pataki (Jesse Sutow, Joey Sutow) 12:12
W Joey Sutow (unassisted) 7:19
W Pat Delaney (Zach Weiss) 03:52
UD Jonathan Bebey (Power Play) (Brian Markman, Gil Lederhandler) 02:57
W Zach Weiss (unassisted) 01:33
Goalies
UD Jack Deragon 35 shots, 27 saves, 8 goals
W Adam Solomon 20 shots, 16 saves, 4 goals
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