Check out the game stories for all three SHSHL Tournament games Wednesday. PW/Quakertown photos courtesy of Tracy Valko. Check back for a gallery of photos: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f1064915949
American Conference
Plymouth Whitemarsh 7, Quakertown 1
By Ben Reese
HATFIELD — In ice hockey, a goal is a goal. It doesn’t really matter how it’s scored.
But some goals find the back of the net that could be called “fluky” or strange.
Well, Plymouth Whitemarsh, which beat Quakertown on Wednesday night 7-2 in the play-in game to the American Division championship contest, got one of those “fluky” goals, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
As the clock ticked down toward zero at the end of the first period, Isaac Mishkin decided to shoot the puck down the ice toward the Quakertown goal. Firing from his own blue line, Mishkin’s shot bounced off the shin pad of a Panther player and caromed past Quakertown goalie Matt Krem with one second left on the clock.
Was that a big goal or what, Coach Dave Cox?
“It was huge,” the PW coach said. “Right at the end of the period we were able to regroup, kind of refocus our energy.
“We had the relaxation of having the first goal. In the playoffs, you have to throw the puck at the net.”
But you surely didn’t expect that.
“Good things happen and that is the truest thing we can say,” Cox continued. “In an air-tight game that it was in the first period - both teams were battling back and forth, and it was good to see us catch a break and we rolled it from there.”
Colonial goalie Chris Maslij was behind the play and saw it all the way.
“It really gave us the momentum,” Maslij said. “The first goal is huge in hockey.
“We’ve been starting slow the past few games so it was good to get the lead. That was definitely (a fluky goal). I don’t know how it went in. That was a lucky one for sure.”
Quakertown coach Keith Krem obviously saw it a bit differently.
“That shocker there at the end, we allowed that to happen,” he said. “From top to bottom, it was all six guys on the ice that allowed that to happen. Giving them the first bounce, that’s a pretty huge advantage.”
It was pretty obvious that the first goal boosted the Colonials’ morale. And they carried it over into the second period.
Dylan Novitski got PW its second goal with only 3:53 gone in the second period. Matt Flynn added a third Colonial goal short-handed at 10:16.
Quakertown did cut that lead down however. William Shaw scored the first Panther goal with seven seconds left on the clock in the second.
Then things got a bit hairy. After only four goals were scored in the first 34 minutes of the game, five goals were scored in the final 17.
Plymouth Whitemarsh tallied four of them, from Flynn, David Branigan, Novitski and Conlan Carpenter. Shaw got his second goal on the power play.
Maslij played an outstanding game in the net for the Colonials. He kicked out 35 of the 37 shots he faced.
“Chris is our superstar,” Cox said. “He really carries the back end of the ice for us.
“He stood on his head. He was absolutely amazing.”
And he stymied the Quakertown offense.
“I don’t think we ever got our offense going,” Krem said. “At the end, we started to get some quality chances but for the most part they were just exterior chances.
“This has been a team we have played close all year. This is really the first game that wasn’t close.
“We did have a good season. I just reminded them that four years ago we didn’t win a game.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh will now take on Abington, the number one seed, for the American Division title on March 1.
What do you expect from Abington?
“They have a lot of depth,” Maslij said. “We definitely have less people.
“We really just have to go out there and work hard. I just want to outwork them and come out with the win at the end of the day.”
Cox couldn’t agree more.
“Abington has depth,” Cox said, “but we’re resilient. Abington and (our team) is going to be a good matchup. We’re very much looking to March 1.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh 7, Quakertown 2
Quakertown 0 1 1 — 2
Plymouth Whitemarsh 1 2 4 — 7
First period: 1, Isaac Mishkin PW (unassisted) 16:59.
Second period: 2, Dylan Novitski PW (David Branigan) 3:53; 3, Matthew Flynn PW (Timothy Murphy) 10:16 SH; 4, William Shaw Q (Keira Shaw, Jack Diliberto) 16:53 PP.
Third period: 5, Flynn PW (unassisted) 0:50; 6, Branigan PW (Flynn) 8:41; 7, Novitski PW (Flynn) 10:38 PP; 8, W. Shaw Q (unassisted) 11:33 PP; 9, Conlan Carpenter PW (Branigan) 16:47.
Shots: Q 37, PW 41. Saves: Mat Krem (Q) 34, Chris Maslij (PW) 35.
National Conference
#4 Neshaminy 6, #5 Central Bucks South 3
Neshaminy needed to stop the bleeding.
Having played a nearly perfect game to that point in building a 5-0 lead early in the third period of an emotional, physical, chippy, and chirpy game, Neshaminy suddenly found itself reeling after the Titans rallied for three goals – two on the power play – in two-and-a-half minutes to make it a 5-3 game midway through the final frame.
Just 71 seconds later, Max Gallagher completed a hat trick when he intercepted a clearing pass at the blue line and shoveled a pass to Nolan Geria, who then returned the puck to Gallagher for a goal that stopped South’s momentum and gave Neshaminy a 6-3 lead that would hold up as the final score in Wednesday’s National Conference opening round matchup at Grundy Ice Arena.
“That was the dagger,” said Neshaminy coach Matt DeMatteo. “You have to get the momentum back, so you throw your top line out and they do exactly what you expect them to do. They’ve been doing it all season, they’re phenomenal.”
Gallagher (3 goals, 1 assist) and Geria (2, 2) each posted four points in the win, which didn’t come easy and wasn’t pretty. Emotions ran high following a boarding call against South that resulted in a 5-minute major and an ejection midway through the first period. Neshaminy’s aggressive play in response resulted in numerous penalties and provided South with plenty of opportunities to trim the deficit. In all, the teams combined for 16 penalties and 43 minutes in the box, with Neshaminy getting whistled for 11 minors.
Solid defense and stellar goaltending from Cory Humberger kept the Titan offense silent through two periods. Most notably, Neshaminy was called for two penalties with 93 seconds left in the second period, giving South a 5-on-3 advantage for a full two minutes. Additionally, after a Neshaminy skater covered the puck in the crease following a goalmouth scramble, South sniper Aydin Thierolf was awarded a penalty shot with 43 seconds left in the second and Neshaminy holding a 3-0 lead.
Facing the first playoff penalty shot of his career, Humberger challenged the shooter and got an assist from every goalie’s best friend as Thierolf went high on the glove side, but the puck clanged off the crossbar.
“I tried to force him to take a move but he wouldn’t do that so I just tried to challenge him as much as I could and tried to take away as much of the net as I could,” Humberger said. “Keeping them off the board was pretty critical. If they would have scored there, they would have had momentum.”
Humberger came up big again in the final seconds of the period, flashing the leather to deny a high shot from Aiden Linso. In all, the Neshaminy netminder turned aside 30 of 33 shots he faced, with many coming from the outside and the point.
“That was the plan – stay strong inside the house, limit them to the outside, contain,” DeMatteo said. “Our D did a really good job, and Cory will take those outside shots all day. He was phenomenal tonight. We have so much confidence in him back there, when we do have a breakdown, he comes up with a big save and regains the momentum for us.”
“The defense did a good job keeping them to the outside and letting me see the puck, and if there was a rebound they cleared the puck, they did a great job,” Humberger said.
The Titans finally found the answer to Humberger with 10 minutes left in the game when Matt Crouch (Justin Montagna assist) zipped a long seeing-eye shot through the five-hole to put the Titans on the board on the power play. Less than two minutes later, Neshaminy was whistled for another penalty and Ryan Frey made them pay just 12 seconds later when he scored on the rebound of a Linso backhand (Keith Waldron also assisted). Not 30 seconds later, Sean Cutter (Thierolf assist) made it 5-3 when he scored off his own rebound.
That set the stage for Gallagher’s heroics and the goal that halted South’s momentum.
“We came out of the gates strong, executed really well, built a nice lead, then the wheels kind of started coming off down the stretch,” DeMatteo said. “We kind of put ourselves into a hole, but the boys dug down deep, battled hard, and took the momentum of the game back the rest of the way.”
In addition to Gallagher and Geria’s four-point efforts, Neshaminy got a goal from Jacob Adami (DJ Harris assist) and an assist from Ben Odendahl.
Neshaminy (7-3-1 National Conference, 12-5-1 overall) advances to the National Conference semifinal to face top seed Council Rock South (9-0-0-1 National Conference, 15-1-0-1 overall) at 7:20 pm March 1 at Grundy. The Golden Hawks won both meetings this season, taking a 4-1 win in late November and a 7-2 victory on Feb. 15.
“We’ll enjoy this one, then it’s back to work and start coming up with a plan for the next game,” DeMatteo said.
“By practice Monday night, we’ll be focused on Council Rock South,” Humberger said. “We’re just going to try and play our game and give everything we have and we’ll see what happens.”
Central Bucks South 0-0-3 3
Neshaminy 2-1-3 6
Shots: CBS 33, N 17; Saves: Jason Magaruh (CBS) 11; Cory Humberger (N) 30.
First period: 1. Max Gallagher, N (Nolan Geria) PP, 3:01; 2. Nolan Geria, N (Max Gallagher) PP, 1:04.
Second period: 3. Nolan Geria, N (unassisted), 9:08.
Third period: 4. Jacob Adami, N (DJ Harris), 13:59; 5. Max Gallagher, N (Ben Odendahl) 13:03; 6. Matt Crouch, CBS (Justin Montagna) PP, 10:00; 7. Ryan Frey, CBS (Aidan Linso, Keith Waldron) PP, 7:58; 8. Sean Cutter, CBS (Aydin Thierolf), 7:29; 9. Max Gallagher, N (Nolan Geria), 6:18.
#3 Pennsbury 6, #6 Central Bucks East 4
With four ticks left on the first period clock, Pennsbury senior Brendan Macainsh completed a hat trick, with all three goals coming on power plays.
Forcing sixth seed Central Bucks East to play from behind, the third-seeded Falcons nurtured the lead Macainsh provided, and stopped the Patriots’ momentum when needed to pull out a hard-fought 6-4 victory in the first round of the National Conference playoffs Wednesday at Grundy Ice Arena.
“That’s a great team over there, and we were shorthanded, we had three guys out with a couple injuries,” said assistant coach Mike Hlasky, who served as the Falcons’ bench boss in lieu of suspended head coach Ryan Daley on this evening. “I’m pretty proud of the way the guys came out tonight. It wasn’t always pretty but a win’s a win, I don’t care how ugly it is. Especially this time of year, a win’s a win.”
East found the answer to Pennsbury goalkeeper Aaron McDaniel (31 saves) on a Corey Kosick power play tally (Jaden Young, Drew Trask assists) five minutes into the second period, but the Falcons answered less than a minute later when Justin Marlin fired home a beautiful feed from Andrew Falkenstein on a rush into the offensive zone.
“That was just a great play by Falkenstein. We practice that play a lot and he just set me up perfectly,” said Marlin, who also assisted on each of Macainsh’s first-period goals. “But getting those goals back after East scored was huge in the second period. We knew we needed to stop them from getting the momentum and keep our lead.”
The Patriots netted two goals – from Carter Keiser (Kosick assist) and Stephen DiRugeris (Kosick assist) – in less than 90 seconds late in the second to close the gap to 4-3. But the Falcons again responded when Shane Gleisner finished off a picture-perfect tic-tac-toe passing play (Falkenstein, Macainsh assists) a minute later.
“We’re a pretty resilient team,” Hlasky said. “We know games aren’t going to come easy every week. We have a ton of skill on our team – we have some of the best firepower in the league. So we know if the other team scores a couple goals, we can bounce right back, we don’t get down on ourselves. We know we can deal with that and we can bounce back.”
Pennsbury extended their lead to 6-3 midway through the third when Macainsh drew three East players to him in a rush into the offensive zone, then fed Chris Sarver for a clean shot into the net.
“That was huge to get that extra goal and give us some breathing room,” Marlin said. “We knew they were going to come at us in the third, so we needed to keep the pressure on, extend that lead, and then, ‘Pucks deep.’”
East would add the final goal of the game with 38 seconds left on a Patrick O’Brien (Christian Asimakopoulos assist) laser.
With the win, Pennsbury improves to 9-2 in National Conference play (13-5 overall), but more importantly, the Falcons advance to face second seed Pennridge in a semifinal tilt at 8:30 pm March 1 at Hatfield Ice Gray. The rivals split the season series, with Pennsbury winning the season opener 6-3 and the Rams taking an 11-4 win in mid-January.
Central Bucks East 0-3-1 4
Pennsbury 3-2-1 6
Shots: CBE 35, Pb 33. Saves: Matt Mangiacapre (CBE) 36; Aaron McDaniel (Pb) 31.
First period: 1. Brendan Macainsh, Pb (Shane Gleisner, Justin Marlin), PP, 3:55; 2. Brendan Macainsh, Pb, (Andrew Falkenstein, Justin Marlin), PP, 2:24; 3. Brendan Macainsh, Pb (Justin Marlin, Andrew Falkenstein), PP, 0:04.
Second period: 4. Corey Kosick, CBE (Jaden Young, Drew Trask) PP, 12:15; 5. Justin Marlin, Pb (Andrew Falkenstein) PP, 11:24; 6. Carter Keiser, CBE (Corey Kosick), 4:55; 7. Stephen DiRugeris, CBE (Corey Kosick), 3:16; 8. Shane Gleisner, Pb (Andrew Falkenstein, Brendan Macainsh), 2:04.
Third period: 9. Chris Sarver, Pb (Brendan Macainsh), 7:20; 10. Patrick O’Brien, CBE (Christian Asimakopoulos), 0:38.
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