PW rallied from an early 3-0 deficit to earn a come-from-behind win over Quakertown in SHSHL action on Wednesday. Ben Reese recaps all the action. Photos provided courtesy of Michael Rice. Check back for a gallery of photos: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f325826012
By Ben Reese
HATFIELD — A timeout is just that, a time to stop play in a game to discuss what is going in the wrong direction most times.
Some sports have a lot of timeouts allocated to each team. In ice hockey, each team gets one.
Plymouth Whitemarsh coach Dave Cox used his only timeout in Wednesday’s game against Quakertown in the first period. Why? Because he didn’t think things were heading in the right direction.
Whatever he said in that short interlude worked as the Colonials came roaring back from a 3-0 deficit to tie the score and then went on to win the game in the third period 7-5.
“We called a timeout and kind of rallied everyone back, got us focused on our goal,” Cox said. “Take it one shift at a time. Come together as a team and things will happen.”
Cox got his message across because PW came out and put two goals on the board in the remainder of the first period.
“It’s how we started but not how we finish,” Cox said of his message to his players. “Let’s take it slow, come together, take a deep breath and let’s get our first goal.”
Which they did. Isaac Mishkin fired the puck past Quakertown goalie Matthew Krem to get PW’s offense started.
Less than three minutes later, Matthew Flynn added a second goal for Plymouth Whitemarsh. The three-goal deficit was now one goal.
“We were down 3-0 and we just decided to come back and check hard and put some pucks in the net,” said defenseman Conlan Carpenter. “The boys just banded together, came together as a team. In the first period, we weren’t clicking.”
So, let’s jump ahead to the third period. Quakertown still had a 5-3 lead.
But suddenly, PW began to put things together. Jacob Elgart scored on the power play with only 1:51 elapsed in the period and it was now 5-4.
At the 5:04 mark, Dylan Novitski took a pass from David Branigan and beat Krem to tie the score. The Colonials have come all the way back.
Then Plymouth Whitemarsh got the goal it was looking for, the go-ahead goal. And it turned into the game-winner.
With 11:17 gone in the final stanza, Carpenter, off an assist from Flynn, fired in the sixth goal of the game for PW, giving the Colonials a 6-5 lead. Quakertown pulled its goalie late in the third and Branigan finished things off with an empty-net goal.
OK, Conlan, how did that game-winner come about?
“My one teammate (Flynn) was behind the net,” Carpenter said. “I saw their winger drop down.
“I came creeping in. He put it right on my stick and I put it top shelf.”
Needless to say, Quakertown coach Keith Krem wasn’t happy with the way things turned out.
“We started gliding around in the second period,” he said. “We were lazy in our own zone, lazy in the neutral zone and it translated into our D zone.
“If you play hockey in your end and allow things to happen, don’t bring good habits for three periods, that’s what it looks like.”
But you did get off to a flying start.
“We came out structured,” he said alluding to the three goals. “(Then) the structure went away.
“You get comfortable with a three-goal lead. It can be difficult sometimes. Luckily it’s a long season.”
Quakertown did come out on fire in the first period. Cole Slemmer scored on a redirection of a shot by Corbin Cassel with only 28 seconds gone in the opening period and added another at the 6:02 mark. Cassel netted the third and the Panthers were riding high.
Then came the timeout. Two PW goals later it was 3-2.
Quakertown put two more goals on the board in the second. Jack Diliberto gave the Panthers a 4-2 lead and, after Jayson Yoder cut the lead back to one goal, Branden McNally scored for Quakertown to boost the lead back to two.
And then Plymouth Whitemarsh caught fire.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 7, Quakertown 5
Plymouth Whitemarsh 2 1 4 — 7
Quakertown 3 2 0 — 5
First period: 1, Cole Slemmer Q (Corbin Cassel) 0:28 PP; 2, Slemmer Q (Lucas Cunnane) 6:02; 3, Cassel Q (unassisted) 9:27; 4, Isaac Mishkin PW (unassisted) 11:54; 5, Matthew Flynn PW (Conlan Carpenter) 14:49.
Second period: 6, Jack Diliberto Q (William Shaw) 3:15; 7, Jayson Yoder PW (Matthew Flynn, Dylan Novitski) 10:51; 8, Branden McNally Q (unassisted) 14:19.
Third period: 9, Jacob Elgart PW (Daniel Guller) 1:51 PP; 10, Novitski PW (David Branigan) 5:04; 11, Conlan Carpenter PW (Flynn) 11:17; 12, Branigan PW (Mishkin) 16:223 EN.
Shots: PW 36, Q 44. Saves: Christopher Maslij (PW) 39, Matthew Krem (Q) 29.
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