Central Bucks South rallied for a come-from-behind win over North Penn in game one of the SHSHL Class AA final on Wednesday.
WARMINSTER- The Central Bucks South ice hockey team has not had much experience this season in trailing after two periods.
The Titans haven’t had much experience trailing at all.
But down 3-2 heading into the final period of Wednesday’s Game 1 of the SHSHL Class AA Final against North Penn, the Titans responded with three goals in the final frame to rally for a 5-3 victory at Bucks County Ice Sports to move to within a game of claiming the league title.
“We were in an interesting spot,” said South coach Tom Coyne. “There have only been a couple times this year we’ve found ourselves behind and we found ourselves there tonight. I give the boys a lot of credit. They found a way to get back in the game and put some beautiful goals in.
“We’re not screamers and yellers, we’re not that kind of coaching staff. The guys are confident, we’ve had confidence in them all year and they have poise night in and night out. And they came through tonight.”
Kevin Casey poked in the rebound of a Tim DiRugeris shot from the point just 13 seconds into the third period to knot the score at 3-3 and put the momentum firmly back in the Titans’ favor.
“We had them down for a while there, but that goal 13 seconds in really hurt us and we weren’t able to recover from that,” said North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis. “We went about 7 minutes after that without a shot.”
Despite the best efforts of North Penn keeper Jake Wolff – who made 37 saves against the high-octane South offense – the top-seeded Titans kept up the pressure and regained the lead when Nick DeLaurentis scored on a 2-on-1 break. DeLaurentis and DiRugeris moved in on the odd-man rush and DeLaurentis wound up and blasted a slap shot past Wolff to give the Titans a 4-3 lead with 7 minutes left in the game.
“The defender was kind of covering the middle,” said DeLaurentis, who finished the game with three goals and an assist. “I didn’t really think I had a pass. He gave me the shot, so I took it.”
DeLaurentis would cap off his three-goal night with 1:31 left in the game, just six seconds after a North Penn timeout, when he put in the rebound of a Connor Bechtel (1 goal, 3 assists) shot.
“We worked hard tonight and took advantage of our chances,” DeLaurentis said. “They worked hard as well and got some chances. We were fortunate to come out with a win. This gives us some good momentum going into tomorrow night.”
North Penn scored all three of its goals in the second period, including two goals in a 69-second span to jump ahead, 2-1. The Knights got on the board with 9:03 left in the period when Matt Barkley got his stick on a Jeremy Snyder low shot from the point that beat Titans’ goalie Adam Calabrese (14 saves). Soon thereafter, the Knights stole a puck in the offensive end and the scorching hot trio of Christian Ahn, Ryan Merk and Matt Stella struck as Merk scored in a scramble around the net, with his linemates each earning an assist.
“I wasn’t particularly happy with our defensive zone stuff,” Coyne said. “We could have taken better care of our own zone, taken better control of the puck.”
South would tie the game at 2-2 on DeLaurentis’ low laser with 5 minutes left in the period.
But the Knights would strike once more. On a late power play, the North Penn front liners lit the lamp again when Stella got the puck to Ahn, and the sophomore dropped a perfect pass over to Merk at the side of the net. Merk made no mistake and the Knights led, 3-2.
The Titans responded, though, and turned much of the final minute of the second period into a shooting gallery, ripping five shots at Wolff, who was equal to every shot.
“Jake came up big for us,” Vaitis said. “He kept us in the game. We were outshot 11-1 at one point and we were only down 1-0. He came up big on a couple breakaways. We just couldn’t get that one more goal to give us some breathing room.”
The teams will return to the Bucks County Ice Sports Center on Thursday for Game 2 of the best-of-three series. North Penn will play as the home team in the 7 p.m. game.
“You’ve got to limit your mistakes against this team,” Vaitis said. “We didn’t do enough of that tonight. Too many times we turned it over in our zone or couldn’t get the puck out. We’ve got to look to fix those things for tomorrow and come out ready to play.
“We’ve faced adversity this year. We’re going to look to bounce back tomorrow night and come out ready to play. This is what we played all season for. This is what we worked for. I know those guys in that locker room, they’re going to come out hard tomorrow and give South a good game and try to force a Game 3 on Friday.”
The Titans expect nothing less. They may not have lost an SHSHL game this season – and they may not have lost in five games against the Knights (including a preseason tournament) – but they’re ready for yet another battle in Game 2.
“Their backs are to the wall,” Coyne said of the Knights. “We can’t be overconfident. This game was pretty close. There’s no reason to come in tomorrow like this series is over. They’re going to come back. I expect them to come back hard tomorrow.”
“We definitely can’t get complacent,” DeLaurentis said. “We’ve got to come out just as hard tomorrow night because we know they’re going to be giving it their best. We’re going to have to match it.”
North Penn 0 3 0 – 3
Central Bucks South 1 1 3 – 5
Scoring
First period
CBS – Connor Bechtel (Nick DeLaurentis) 9:15.
Second period
NP – Matt Barkley (Jeremy Snyder, Doug Barber), 9:03.
NP – Ryan Merk (Matt Stella, Christian Ahn), 7:54.
CBS – DeLaurentis (Bechtel), PP, 5:02.
NP – Merk (Ahn, Stella), PP, 3:25.
Third period
CBS – Kevin Casey (Tim DiRugeris, Bechtel), 14:47.
CBS – DeLaurentis (Bobby Mallon) 6:58.
CBS – DeLaurentis (Bechtel), 1:31.
Shots on goal
North Penn 6 8 3 – 17
Central Bucks South 15 11 16 – 42
Saves
Jake Wolff (NP) 37; Adam Calabrese (CBS) 14.
GOLDEN BEARS WIN GAME 1 ... Two playoff games, two big upsets for Upper Moreland.
After dispatching top-seeded Lansdale Catholic in the Class A semifinal, the fourth-seeded Golden Bears posted a 3-2 win over second-seeded Upper Dublin Wednesday in Game 1 of the Class A final at Hatfield Ice.
Sean Lloyd scored twice in the first five minutes of the game, the first from Nick Park and the second a power play tally from Park and Matt Baumgardner.
Upper Dublin senior Jonathan Bebey scored (Tyler Peskin assist) on a power play early in the second period to cut into the Bears’ lead.
Upper Moreland put in an insurance goal with less than seven minutes left in the game when Park scored from Baumgardner and Eric Tompkins. Upper Dublin’s Sam Etskovitz scored a power play goal (Bebey, Tyler Peskin assists) with 47 seconds left in the game to make it a 3-2 score.
Jared Burch recorded 36 saves for Upper Moreland. Zach Hanson turned aside 21 shots for Upper Dublin.
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