A shorthanded Wissahickon squad defeated Central Bucks East 3-1 on Thursday night. To view game action shots, please visit the Photo Gallery.
WARMINSTER – It would be fair to say that Wissahickon sophomore Luke Honorowski was everywhere during the Trojan ice hockey team’s matchup against Central Bucks East on Thursday.
When your team is only playing seven skaters, you tend to be involved in an exorbitant amount of plays.
Honorowski scored two goals as the shorthanded Trojans jumped out to a 2-0 lead and held on to down the Patriots, 3-1, in an SHSHL crossover game at Bucks County Ice Sports Center.
“We were really lucky to go ahead early,” said Trojans’ coach Ryan McLaughlin, who was missing three seniors to injuries or other commitments. “We got up early and just played a 1-2-2 high, trapped them and held on.
“When you’re playing with this short of a bench, you hope you can get ahead early. That’s the biggest thing, because once you get ahead, you can trap. So we wanted to make sure we had a third guy high at all times, made sure we were cycling back.”
The Trojans also received a stellar effort from goalkeeper Jordan Fromm. The smallest and one of the youngest players on the ice, the freshman netminder turned aside 30 of 31 Central Bucks East shots on the night to earn the victory.
“The best part of our goalie is his attitude,” McLaughlin said. “He lets in a goal, he forgets about it two seconds later, and that’s really important. He’s a young kid, so the fact that he doesn’t dwell on a goal is big. And you won’t catch him without a smile on his face.”
“I try to play out in my crease so it makes me look bigger and cuts off the angles,” said a smiling Fromm. “We’ve played (East) before, and I knew they like to shoot it a lot, so I came out further and I just played all my angles.”
Fromm came up big early, as the Patriots registered six of the game’s first seven shots. He denied a terrific chance from Joe Sculley in the opening minutes, then turned aside a Chris Japchen blast from the point on the power play.
The Trojans got on the scoreboard with seven minutes left in the first when Tyler Freas scored on a scramble for the loose puck in front of East freshman keeper Steven Gilchrist. Less than 30 seconds later, Honorowski rifled a slap shot from just inside the blue line that found the net to give the Trojans a 2-0 lead.
“We were working hard out there,” Honorowski said. “We just wanted to keep getting shots at the net. Getting the lead was very important to get our momentum going.”
East finally found the answer to Fromm when Zach Davis poked home the rebound of an Austin Chase shot four minutes into the second period. Less than 30 seconds later, Davis had an opportunity to knot the game on a wicked slap shot, but Fromm flashed the glove to deny the chance.
Not even a half-minute after that, the Trojans made one count when Honorowski beat his defender on a one-on-one, put the moves on Gilchrist and slid the puck through the five-hole to put the Trojans back on top by two goals.
The Patriots, who had 12 shots in the period, kept Fromm busy until the intermission. Davis and Chase each had solid scoring chances, and Fromm made a stellar save on a crossing pass that required him to move from one post to the other to make the pad save.
He was also aided by some smart defensive play from the Trojans, most notably from Matt Vervlied, who broke up a pair of two-on-one breaks by disrupting passes.
“The defense played great tonight,” Fromm said. “They really helped me out o
n the two-on-ones, and they blocked a lot of shots for me.”
The Trojans played a defensive-minded third period, icing the puck when necessary and keeping several players back to make it more difficult for the Patriots to gain speed and connect with passes through the neutral zone.
East was unable to muster many threats among their nine third-period shots. Their best chance came when a Wissahickon pass back to the point on the power play skipped into the neutral zone and was picked up by a streaking East forward, but a smart defensive play by David Pataki broke up the rush before a shot could be taken.
Not bad for a group of players who were double- and triple-shifting throughout the game.
“That third period was terrible,” Honorowski said with a laugh. “I didn’t think it was ever going to end.”
With the victory, the Trojans improve to 7-8-1 overall and remain 3-3-1 with 7 points for second place in the American Division. The Trojans control their own destiny in the race for the two postseason berths in the division and can clinch second place with a league win or Upper Dublin loss.
“This team beat two other teams in our division,” Fromm said. “To beat them shows we’re a very good team and we can play with anybody.”
“This really was an awesome effort,” McLaughlin said. “They worked hard, they knew they had their hands full and they played really, really well.”
Central Bucks East 0 1 0 – 1
Wissahickon 2 1 0 – 3
First period:
W – Tyler Freas (unassisted), 6:52.
W – Luke Honorowski (Dustin Rabinowitz assist), 6:30.
Second period:
CBE – Zach Davis (Austin Chase assist), 10:43.
W – L. Honorowski (David Pataki, Rabinowitz assist), 9:58.
Third period:
No scoring
Shots on goal:
Central Bucks East 10 12 9 – 31
Wissahickon 9 6 5 – 20
Saves:
Central Bucks East: Steven Gilchrist 17
Wissahickon: Jordan Fromm 30
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