William Tennent and Pennsbury picked up wins at Bucks County Ice on Wednesday. Craig Ostroff recaps all the action.
By Craig Ostroff
William Tennent 5, Harry S Truman 4
William Tennent coach Nick D’Aurizio has a saying for games like these: They don’t draw pictures on the scoresheet.
While it may not have been pretty, and it likely will result in a few extra gray hairs for the Panthers’ coach, the bottom line is that Tennent gutted it out and hung on for a hard-fought 5-4 victory over American Conference foe Harry S Truman on Wednesday.
“At the end of the day, this is a 5-4 win,” D’Aurizio said. “It wasn’t pretty by any stretch of the imagination, it was not our best effort, but we pulled out a win when we needed it, and this was a must-win for us. If we want to make the playoffs, we had to win this game.”
The Panthers dominated much of the opening period, jumping out to a 3-0 lead with three minutes left in the first on goals by Justin Carrelli (Matthew Castan assist), Jagger Azvolinsky (Nate Silberman, Castan assists), and Travis Ribikauskas (Bryan Mesaros, Jonathan Kreider assists).
But as would be the theme of the evening, the Tigers would not go away. James Gallagher put Truman on the board with 32 seconds left in the first period (Jeremy McCartney, John Huhn assists), then McCartney netted his first of three (Gallagher assist) late in the second to trim the Tennent lead to 3-2.
“We knew it was coming,” D’Aurizio said. “If you look some of at their past games, they all follow the same theme. We watched their game against Hatboro (a 4-3 Truman victory). Hatboro goes up 3-0 in the first period and they battled all the way back. We went up 3-0, and they got the next goal and I said ‘Guys, it’s happening.’ And the second period when they got closer, I said ‘Guys, it’s happening.’ We knew this team was not going to go away. They fought till the very end.”
Tennent had extended its lead to 4-2 on an impossible angle shot from Carrelli in the final seconds of the second period, but Truman again answered with McCartney’s second early in the third. When Carrelli seemingly iced the game by capping off a hat trick of his own on an empty net goal with 2 minutes left, at least one person in the arena knew there was plenty of time left on the clock.
“We scored that empty netter with about two minutes left, got the two-goal lead, I said, ‘This game is not over,’ and what do you know, suddenly it’s 5-4 with a full minute to go,” D’Aurizio said.
McCartney’s third (Brent McGoldrick, Eric Stofan assists) on a power play with an empty net once again made it a one-goal game. Truman had several solid chances in the final minute of play, but Tennent goalie Tom Lomas came up huge—as he did throughout the game—denying several point-blank chances in the slot. Lomas recorded 23 saves on 27 shots, though many were highlight-reel stops.
“It seemed like every chance they had was a quality scoring chance,” D’Aurizio said. “Tom had a couple long stretches where he wasn’t seeing any action at all, and for a goaltender to stay warm during long stretches is the hardest thing to do, but time and time again he made the big save. In that last minute, he made point-blank saves with their guy in the slot wide open and Tom was there to make the saves, and he’s been doing that for us all year.”
The loss drops Truman to 3-4. Next up is the Tigers’ second meeting with Wissahickon in two weeks, having dropped an 8-4 decision on Feb. 11. They’ll get another crack at the Trojans at 8:30 Feb. 24 at Hatfield Gray.
With the win, Tennent improves to 2-3-1 overall. The Panthers will look to build on the momentum as they look ahead to a Friday matchup at Hatboro-Horsham at 7:20 pm at Hatfield Gray.
“We feel we’ve underperformed up to this point,” D’Aurizio said. “We need to be winning more games as we go back through the league, especially to teams we’ve lost to. Hatboro is a big game on Friday. We tied them last time, so we need to capitalize if we want to get to where we hope to be at the end of the season. We need wins.”
Harry S Truman 1-1-2 4
William Tennent 3-1-1 5
First period: 1. Justin Carrelli WT (Matthew Castan) 12:37; 2. Jagger Azvolinsky WT (Nate Silberman/Matthew Castan) 4:49; 3. Travis Ribikauskas WT (Bryan Mesaros/Jonathan Kreider) 3:19; 4. James Gallagher HST (Jeremy McCartney/John Huhn) :32.
Second period: 5. Jeremy McCartney HST (James Gallagher) 2:31; 6. Justin Carrelli WT (Matthew Castan) :31.
Third period: 7. Jeremy McCartney HST (unassisted) 11:02; 8. Justin Carrelli WT (unassisted) ENG 1:58; 9. Jeremy McCartney HST (Brent McGoldrick/Eric Stofan) :57.
Shots: Harry S Truman 27, William Tennent 51. Saves: Connor Pilla (HST) 46, Tom Lomas (WT) 23.
They said:
Forward Justin Carrelli
Was this the type of game you expected from a team like Truman: After the first period, they picked it up and really came on strong. We knew they would. You expect that from them, they’ve done the same thing to three other teams this year. They’re a second-half team, so we knew even with a three-goal lead, we couldn’t let down..jpg)
How important was the early three-goal lead: It’s always important to play with the lead. It gives you momentum, gives you a boost, and it makes it easier to continue to score.
What does it say about Tennent to be able to withstand that comeback attempt and pull out the victory: This was a gritty performance, that’s all I have to say.
Talk about the effort of your goalkeeper tonight: Tom comes up big time and time for us every game. He always keeps us in games.
What are you expecting from the second half of the season: We’re just going to keep grinding, get those gritty goals in, and keep building and pushing forward.
Defenseman Zach Devor
Was this the type of game you expected from a team like Truman: We watched a ton of film, and I’ve been preaching to my boys that this is a third-period team. If you want to win this game, you’ve got to play all three periods to the best of your ability. That second period they took advantage and got.jpg)
right back into the game. That’s what’s going to happen with Truman.
How important was the early three-goal lead: It helps you with your confidence, and over the years, confidence has been an issue at times. But you get that lead and things just start to roll and you look to build off of it.
What does it say about Tennent to be able to withstand that comeback attempt and pull out the victory: This is a fighting team, we will never quit. It doesn’t matter if we have 15 guys on the bench or if we have 5, we will never quit and we will fight till the end. This team has never had a problem with that. We’re all about heart, we’re hard-nosed hockey players, we do not quit.
Talk about the effort of your goalkeeper tonight: That boy has stepped up! That boy has stepped up! This year, that kid has played unbelievable, he really has stepped up. He’s great, he’s probably one of the best goalies in the league. He’s playing amazing, and he definitely saved us tonight.
What are you expecting from the second half of the season: Energy, hustle, and heart. It’s that simple. If you come out here, you’ve just got to work. This league is all about heart and effort—last week we saw Abington beat Wissahickon because of the heart and the effort. And I have confidence that we have the most heart and effort in the league and we’re going to turn it up the rest of the season
With all the uncertainty surrounding this season, how happy are you just to be able to play: I’m thrilled - thrilled the league is putting in the effort to let us all come out here and play. I miss Willie T Nation, all our fans, I really do, they’re a big part of us, but having the season is a great thing.”
Pennsbury 4, Council Rock South 1
Pennsbury junior captain Shane Siegmund knew he owed it his teammates to make something positive happen.
Siegmund had missed significant ice time after drawing a 2-minute minor plus 10-minute misconduct on a crosscheck in the later stages of the second period.
So, with the Falcons clinging to a 2-1 lead with 10 minutes left in the third period and staring at a 2-minute penalty kill, Siegmund made some magic happen, scoring a goal and assisting on another in an 18-second span while shorthanded.
“I can’t speak any higher words for him,” Pennsbury coach Ryan Daley said. “Shane is a junior that plays like he’s been a senior for years, he’s a great leader, and what a shift he had there. He took a stupid penalty earlier, got the 2 and 10, you could tell he was fired up, he came out of the box and just let it rip. It was awesome to watch.”
Siegmund took a pass from Brendan MacAinsh and burned down the ice, going wide around a defender and using a nifty deke to find just enough space between the goalie’s pad and the post to tuck in a shorthanded tally. Off the ensuing faceoff, Reece Millman fed Siegmund, who hit MacAinsh with a crossing pass for the sophomore to bury and give the Falcons a sudden 4-1 lead that would hold up as the final score as the Falcons downed National Conference rival Council Rock South on Wednesday.
The wild third period was a far cry from the first two periods, which saw plenty of back-and-forth action but very few quality chances. Jake McCaw’s unassisted goal three minutes into the contest was the only time either team was able to get the puck in the net over the first two periods.
“Council Rock’s goalie (Jimmy Sweeney) is a really good goalie, both their goalies are,” Daley said. “I knew we had to shoot the puck a ton, and the guys didn’t let us down. There was a lot of traffic, and the shots were there, but we had to work to get those quality chances.”
McCaw’s second of the game (Millman assist), a power play goal just 15 seconds into the third period, gave the Falcons a two-goal lead that would last just 23 seconds before the Golden Hawks answered on an unassisted goal from Julian Sarne.
It was the only time South could find the answer for Marek Jorgenson, who turned aside 26 shots, several in impressive fashion. For South, Sweeney recorded 29 saves.
The Falcons are now riding high on a five-game winning streak and control their destiny as they look to the second half of the season. Pennsbury is slated to play Central Bucks West at tonight at 7:30 pm at Grundy, weather permitting, and will visit Souderton on Feb. 25 at 6:30 pm at Hatfield Gray.
“I think for the second half of the season, this was probably one of our biggest games,” Daley said. “Council Rock is a great team, and it’s nice to win a rivalry game, too.
“I think we’re where we want to be right now. Is every game perfect? No, but the mistakes we make are small and we make up for them quickly. The intensity is there, the offense is there, everyone is moving in the right direction.”
Pennsbury 1-0-3 4
Council Rock South 0-0-1 1
First period: 1. Jake McCaw P (unassisted), 13:07.
Second period: No scoring.
Third period: 2. Jake McCaw P (Reece Millman assist) PP 15:45; 3. Julian Sarne CRS (unassisted) 15:22; 4. Shane Siegmund P (Brendan MacAinsh) SH 8:39; 5. Brendan MacAinsh P (Shane Siegmund/Reece Millman) SH 8:21.
Shots: Pennsbury 32, Council Rock South 27. Saves: Marek Jorgenson (P) 26; Jimmy Sweeney (CRS) 29.
They said:
Forward Shane Siegmund
How important was that penalty kill in the third period: Getting the 2 and 10 hurt. I knew I needed to do something to make up for it. I’m glad we had Brendan and Millman out there to feed me with passes. We all just.jpg)
worked for it and stuck with it and things went our way and a couple quick goals went in.
How much more intensity do you bring into a conference game: We were ready. We knew we had to win this one, the team was ready for it.
Was this the type of game you expect when you play Council Rock South: They’re all good teams in our league, everyone has solid lines and good goalies. You just have to pick it up, we pushed through and were able to get past them.
Is the team where you want it to be at this point: Definitely. We’re all working as a team, we all know what each one of us can do. It worked out there tonight, so I’m happy, and I’m happy with what we can do moving forward.
How happy are you just to be on the ice and playing this season: It’s incredible just to be able to be back. I’m just happy to be back with the team and happy to be playing again.
Forward Brendan MacAinsh
How important was that penalty kill in the third period: It was really important. We were up by one, we’re shorthanded, to score twice 20 seconds apart, that’s huge for us and it’s tough for the other team to come back from something like that..jpg)
How much more intensity do you bring into a conference game: We know what we want to do at the end of the season, reach playoffs make a run at states. We have great coaching, great kids on the team, we have great chemistry. We know what we have to do to be successful and to accomplish our goals.
Was this the type of game you expect when you play Council Rock South: They’re a good team. I expected a tough, hard battle to the end and that’s what we had tonight.
Is the team where you want it to be at this point: We’re in a good spot, but we can still do better. You just want to try not to make any mistakes, play a perfect game.
How happy are you just to be on the ice and playing this season: I can’t believe we’re back and we’re playing. I just enjoy being on the ice with the guys.
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