The Flying Cardinals celebrated Senior Night with 6-2 win over Upper Moreland.
It was fitting that the Upper Dublin ice hockey team celebrated Senior Night with a postgame cake. The game itself was something of a piece of cake for the Flying Cardinals as well.
The Cards scored two goals early and never looked back en route to a dominating 6-2 win over Upper Moreland in an American Division matchup of two teams jockeying for playoff position.
“I was really happy with our start,” said Cardinals’ coach Chalie Sgrillo. “We came out of the gate running and I really liked that we didn’t take our foot off the pedal. We got gradually better as the game went on, which is what you want to do with the playoffs coming on.”
The Cards opened the scoring on the power play 61 seconds into the game when Sam Etskovitz cleanly won an offensive zone draw back to Jonathan Bebey at the point, and Bebey ripped a shot that beat Golden Bears’ goalie Jared Burch high to the glove side.
“Usually I’m back on D, but it’s always nice when I can add a goal here or there,” said the senior defender, who finished with a goal and two assists on the night.
“That’s what you get with Jonathan,” Sgrillo said. “He’s one of our go-to guys. He’s clutch in those situations. I don’t have to think twice about putting him out there in any situation. It’s definitely easy to have a defenseman like that.”
Two-and-a-half minutes after opening the scoring, Bebey fed Tyler Peskin with an outlet pass and Peskin and Etskovitz charged through the neutral zone. Peskin bolted down the left side of the rink, then tossed a pass to Etskovitz in the middle, and the high-scoring Cardinal forward buried it to make it 2-0. It was Etskovitz’ 21st goal of the season.
Upper Dublin would increase its lead to 3-0 before the period ended when a shot from the point from Bebey was deflected in by Robbie DeGregorio. After the opening 15 minutes, the Cardinals had outshot Upper Moreland, 14-2.
“We definitely did not expect that,” Bebey said of the Cards’ dominating start. “Their goalie is fantastic, and when we got a couple early ones, I had a good feeling that we were going to put them away. Our coach kept telling us, make this a statement game, don’t let up, show the other teams in the league that you really mean something.”
The Cards’ depth made it 4-0 when Alexander Berk poked home the puck in a scrum around the Upper Moreland crease. Danny Schwartz and Jonothan Gewirtzman picked up assists on the play, Schwartz’ first helper of the season and Gewirtzman’s first point.
“Jon ended up with two shots, an assist and a penalty,” Sgrillo said. “He wanted it.”
Sean Lloyd helped close the gap to 4-1 on the power play less than 90 seconds later. The Upper Moreland scoring leader, Lloyd was denied twice earlier in the period by Cardinals’ goalie Zach Hanson, but he fed linemate Matt Baumgardner with a centering pass from the left side of the ice and Baumgardner found the net.
But the Cardinals responded 30 seconds later on a 3-on-1 break. When the Upper Moreland defender committed to puck carrier Ben Hoffman, he shoveled the puck to DeGregorio, who netted his second of the night (and 17th of the season) high to the glove side. Upper Dublin made it 6-1 with 5:59 left in the second period when Peskin scored his ninth of the season (and 26th point).
“I feel good for all the guys, they wanted it and they came out hungry,” Sgrillo said. “I told them it’s their night.”
Upper Dublin again dominated in the final period, peppering Burch with 19 shots. The junior goalkeeper made numerous stellar saves in the final period, including a stop of Gewirtzman on a 2-on-1 break, making the stop on a rush that turned into a three-man breakaway for the Cardinals, and strong saves on shots by Peskin and DeGregorio.
Upper Moreland was held to just three shots in the period, but one was a Lloyd breakaway that beat Hanson with 3:51 left in the game.
“Lloyd is a guy who’s always looking to score, and we definitely looked to stop him,” Bebey said. “We were able to shut him down for the most part; we had a nice trap going.”
And for Bebey and the rest of the seniors, the victory was a nice way to celebrate Senior Night.
“It feels really good,” he said. “I’ve been playing with some of these guys since I started. Upper Dublin (youth hockey) league started in sixth grade, so at least six years we’ve been together. We’re getting to the point where we realize it’s coming to an end, but when everyone dominates and everyone contributes, it’s a lot of fun out there.”
The Cardinal victory also tightens things up in the American Division as teams jockey for playoff positioning. Lansdale Catholic has secured the top spot with a 7-1 league record (10-8-1 overall). Wissahickon is in second at 3-3-1 (7 points), Upper Moreland is in third at 3-6 (6 points) and the Flying Cardinals move to 2-5-1 (5 points). The Golden Bears have completed their league slate, while the Cards have one league game left, against Wissahickon on Feb. 10 (the Trojans also have a league game against LC on Feb. 3).
For Upper Dublin, that makes their next task clear … get those two points against Wissahickon and leap into third place in the division.
“We grab these two (points) and then Wissahickon,” Sgrillo said. “That way we face LC in the finals instead of the semifinals. We want to be facing that team in the championship.”
Upper Moreland 0 1 1 – 2
Upper Dublin 3 3 0 – 6
Scoring
First Period
UD – Jonathan Bebey (Sam Etskovitz), PP, 13:59.
UD – Etskovitz (Tyler Peskin, Bebey), 11:40.
UD – Robbie DeGregorio (Bebey, Ben Hoffmann), PP, 1:08.
Second Period
UD – Alexander Berk (Danny Schwartz, Jon Gewirtzman), 10:22.
UM – Matt Baumgerdner (Sean Lloyd, Nick Park), PP, 9:02.
UD – DeGregorio (Hoffmann), 8:31.
UD – Peskin (Etskovitz, Steve Barbera), 5:59.
Third period
UM – Lloyd (unassisted), 3:51.
Shots on goal
Upper Moreland 2 14 3 – 19
Upper Dublin 14 15 19 – 48
Saves
Jared Burch (UM) 42; Zach Hanson (UD) 17.
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