Council Rock South rallied in the final five minutes to stun Pennsbury in a thriller, North Penn extended its season while Pennridge saw its season end. To view photos of the North Penn/Avon Grove, Pennridge/Boyertown and CR South/Pennsbury games, please visit the Photo Gallery.
By Scott Huff
Hatfield Ice – North Penn senior Ryan Merk scored a breakaway goal in overtime to spark the Knights to a 4-3 victory over Avon Grove in a Flyers Cup Class AA contest. North Penn will advance to the next round of the playoffs next Tuesday when the Knights meet #7 Downingtown East at Hatfield Ice with a 7 pm face-off.
“To be honest, I don’t really remember exactly how I got the puck on my stick,” said Merk, who scored a pair of goals for the winners. “But once I got in on the goalie, I went to a shot that I use a lot in practice. And it worked.”
“I’ve seen him use that shot from time to time,” smiled a relieved North Penn head coach Kevin Vaitis. “He is our senior captain – he works his tail off – and the rest of the team feed off his energy as a leader.
“There was a big sigh of relief in that locker room,” added Vaitis. “It’s scary when a playoff game gets into overtime. Anything can happen.”
North Penn appeared to have the game in hand in the third period with a 3-1 lead and eight minutes, 42 seconds left in the game. However, Avon Grove began to take control of the game and scored a pair of goals to knot the score at 3-3 and send the game into overtime. The Devils scored with just 27 seconds left in the third period after they pulled their goalie.
“We didn’t play our best in the third period,” said Merk. “Maybe we just got a little too comfortable. Avon Grove is a strong offensive team, and they have some very good players on that team.”
“Avon Grove kept battling the whole game, they played a lot better than a #15 seed,” said Vaitis. “They have some highly skilled players on offense.”
Avon Grove jumped out to a 1-0 first period lead, but North Penn created a 1-1 first period deadlock when Doug Barber scored on assists from Ted Stoler and Matt Barkley.
North Penn created some separation on power play goals by Christian Ahn and Merk, but the Devils refused to go away and forged the third period tie with two late goals to force the overtime.
“We are going to work hard in practice on Monday to get ourselves focused for Downingtown East,” said Vaitis. “We want to keep playing.”
Avon Grove Devils 0 1 2 0 - 3
North Penn Knights 0 1 2 1 - 4
First Period
Scoreless
Second Period
AG: Andrew Lasker (Carson Newton) – 9:36 (Even Strength)
NP: Doug Barber (Ted Stoler & Matt Barkley) – 8:47 (Even Strength)
Third Period
NP: Christian Ahn (Matt Stella & Caleb Witzaney) – 11:48 (Power Play)
NP: Ryan Merk (Ahn & Jeremy Snyder) – 8:42 (Power Play)
AG: Tommy Cooney (Newton & Kyle Daley) – 6:05 (Power Play)
AG: Lasker (Andy Hewitt) – 0.27.5 – (Even Strength)
Overtime
NP: Merk (unassisted)
Goaltenders: Avon Grove – Logan Reisinger 26 saves; North Penn Cody Matthews – 26 saves
Shots On Goal:
Avon Grove Devils 8 5 9 7 - 29
North Penn Knights 9 9 8 4 - 30
Rams Season Ends in Flyers Cup Loss
Pennridge took a 2-1 lead but failed to secure the victory as the Rams season came to a close with a 5-2 loss to Boyertown in a first round Flyers Cup game. Pennridge entered the game as a #10 seed, while Boyertown made the trip to Hatfield Ice as a #11 seed.
“I was surprised, a little, that we were even invited to be in the Flyers Cup,” said Pennridge head coach Larry Wheatley. “And to be a # 10 seed, well, the players were ecstatic. It has been four years since Pennridge had a team that was invited to the Flyers Cup – in fact – I don’t think we had a player on the team ever play in the Flyers Cup.
“We were really only two lines deep with all the concussions and injuries,” added Wheatley. “We tried to keep the pressure on them as much as we could, but we didn’t play the type of game we thought we might be able to play. But we lost the game – no excuses.”
Shane Lyons scored a goal for the Rams on assists from Tyler Shagen and Joe Root that knotted the score in the first period, and Pennridge took a second period lead on a goal by Zach Heitzenrater with an assist from Matt Brown.
“We had the lead, but we couldn’t build on it,” said Wheatley as the Rams out shot the Bears by a 36-22 margin. “We had a lot of action in front of their net, but we just couldn’t put the puck in the net.”
Pennridge Rams 1 1 0 - 2
Boyertown Bears 1 2 2 - 5
First Period
B: John Maniscalco (Unassisted)
P: Shane Lyons (Tyler Shagen & Joe Root
Second Period
P: Zach Heitzenrater (Matt Brown)
B: George Cartus (Maniscalco)
B: Justin Finnerty (Robert Weinberger & Maniscalco)
Third Period
B: Sean Fulmer (Finnerty)
B: Chris Lees (Finnerty)
Goaltender: Pennridge – Eric McCrorie – 17 saves; Boyertown – Jake Evans 34 saves.
Shots On Goal:
Pennridge Rams 11 7 18 - 36
Boyertown Bears 3 10 9 - 22
By Craig Ostroff
WARMINSTER – With Council Rock South trailing 2-1 with just under five minutes left in Thursday’s Flyers Cup Class AA second-round matchup at Bucks County Ice Sports Arena, South coach Joe Houk called a timeout and gathered his troops.
“It was not a yelling or screaming timeout,” Houk said. “It was just, ‘Some of you guys are seniors … don’t make this your last five minutes of high school hockey. You’re the better team, you controlled the game, you’ve really got to dig down and make things happen.’”
Just 20 seconds after play resumed, Dan Margolin fluttered a shot in from the point. Pennsbury goalkeeper Ben Herring went down to make the save, but Jared Hershman poked at the puck from the side of the net and shoveled it in to knot the score at 2-2. Sophomore Nick Keck then completed the stunning comeback on a goal with 42 seconds remaining to give the third-seeded Golden Hawks a dramatic victory and break the collective hearts of the Falcons.
“These are two teams that know each other very well,” said Pennsbury coach John Bria. “We seem to play these guys very well, and they always seem to come out on top.
“The way we battled tonight, we didn’t give up, we didn’t quit, we left everything on the ice. I’m really proud of the way we battled tonight. We just didn’t have enough horses at the end. At the end of the day, they were the better team.”
Despite Rock’s 40-30 advantage in shots (30-13 after two periods), the two SHSHL National Division mates played in one of the most competitive and thrilling games of the Flyers Cup thus far. South opened the scoring just over three minutes into the game when Steve Junod scored on the rebound of a Keck shot off a centering pass from behind the net. Pennsbury tied the score with two minutes left in the period when Ryan Daley backhanded in the rebound of a point-black Luke Matthews shot.
Goalkeepers Herring and Justin Houk were both unbeatable in the second period, with Herring facing 11 shots and Houk 6. The Falcons got one past Houk two minutes into the final frame on a textbook pass across the goalmouth from Nigel Honegger to Will Richards, who buried the puck into the back of the net for a power play goal. Houk came up big shortly thereafter, denying a Honegger backhand attempt after a scrum in front of the net and keeping the Hawks within one.
“The hard part for us is we come off a two-week layoff, but played a pretty strong game, we controlled pretty much the whole game,” coach Houk said. “Part of that second period we went down, and after they scored on that power play, we got a lot a lot of shots but didn’t put enough pressure on them. They’re a good team, they play us hard every time.”
South’s best chance came with 4:45 left when Jake Nevin ripped a low shot that Herring stopped and covered.
That’s when Houk used his timeout.
“Coach kept us calm,” said senior defenseman Dan Ufberg. “He called a timeout at the right time. He told us to keep our heads, that good teams find a way to win. We came out gunning and we pulled through.”
Hershman tied the game 20 seconds later, and Keck scored the biggest goal of his career when Mitch Vaysman hit him with a lead pass and the sophomore forward weaved past a Pennsbury defender and fired the puck past Herring with 42 ticks left on the clock.
“Nick’s got tremendous skill, great hands,” Houk said. “He had a rough game tonight. He comes in and teams key in on him. He gets frustrated and wants to do everything himself.
“That was actually a beautiful play by Vaysman. Mitch just held the puck and laid it out there and Nick caught it and went in, beat his kid and zipped it along the ice.”
“We played a double-overtime against Council Rock North, triple-overtime against North Penn (in the SHSHL playoffs),” Keck said. “We didn’t want to go into another overtime. We had to buckle down, get down to business, do what we needed to do to step up and score.”
Pennsbury, the 14th seed in the Flyers Cup tournament, had edged 19th seed Spring-Ford, 2-1, in Tuesday’s play-in round to set up the third meeting of the season with South. Just as had happened during the two regular-season games, South trailed in the third period before winning the first game and forging a tie in the second. The Falcons end the season at 15-12-3 overall and will bid farewell to five seniors, including team captain and leading scorer Luke Matthews, forward Will Richards and forward/defenseman Ryan Daley.
“I told the kids, ‘It’s a tough way to lose tonight, but not everybody finishes on top,’” Bria said. “I said, ‘Let’s take what we learned tonight and take it into next year. I know it seems like a million years away but understand that you guys can play with anybody. When you play the way you played tonight, you can battle with anybody.’ I think when they took the lead in that game, they started to believe in themselves. Unfortunately we just ran out of gas at the end.”
Rock South moves on to face 11th seed Boyertown – 5-2 winners over Pennridge on Thursday – in Monday’s quarterfinal matchup, scheduled for 7:20 p.m. at Bucks County Ice Sports Center.
“A game like this gives you confidence you can get that last-second chance and last-second shot,” Keck said. “It’s never easy in the Flyers Cup. But we’ve been through it before. We know what to expect and what it’s going to be like.”
“We’re happy about the win,” Houk said. “We hung in there, persevered and battled through it. Good teams find ways to win, that’s our motto, and that’s what we did tonight.”
Pennsbury 1 0 1 – 2
Council Rock South 1 0 2 – 3
Scoring
First period
CRS – Steve Junod (Nick Keck), 11:56.
P – Ryan Daley (Luke Matthews, Andrew Sweetland), 2:17.
Second period
No scoring
Third period
P – Will Richards (Nigel Honegger), PP, 13:12.
CRS – Jared Hershman (unassisted), 4:25.
CRS – Keck (Mitch Vaysman, Tom Kopania), 0:42.
Shots on goal
Pennsbury 7 6 17 – 30
Council Rock South 19 11 10 – 40
Saves: Ben Herring (P) 37; Justin Houk (CRS) 28.
Top-seeded Titans advance
Central Bucks South scored four second-period goals to pull away from 17th-seeded Hempfield, taking a 5-2 victory at Warwick Ice Arena and earning a berth in the Flyers Cup Class AA quarterfinals.
Connor Bechtel had two goals and an assist, Nick DeLaurentis had a goal and two helpers, and Jimmy Milanesi and Dominic Bova each added a goal for the top-seeded Titans. Tim DiRugeris had two assists and David Cochran one in the victory.
Hempfield scored first, but Bechtel tied the score less than two minutes later, the first of four consecutive Titans’ goals.
The Titans were one-for-seven on the power play. South outshot Hempfield 52-24. The Titans fired a jaw-dropping 35 shots on goal in the second period alone.
South will meet ninth seed Cherokee – which dominated Council Rock North in its first round game – in Monday’s quarterfinal, slated for 7 p.m. at Warwick.
Wissahickon ousted by Springfield
Tyler Freas scored (Dustin Rabinowitz, Jeff Schaeffer assists) for Wissahickon just 2:33 into the game, but little else went right for the 19th-seeded Trojans, who surrendered 10 unanswered goals and fell 10-1 to third seed Springfield in Thursday’s Class A second-round game at Aston. Springfield scored three goals on the power play, as Wissahickon was whistled for eight penalties in the game. The Cougars outshot the Trojans, 36-20.
Wood falls to Carroll
Archbishop Carroll jumped out to a 2-0 lead after one period en route to a 5-2 victory over fourth-seeded Archbishop Wood in Thursday’s Class A second-round game at Bucks County Ice Sports Center.
Patrick Cavanaugh and Matt Mandes scored for the Vikings, who were outshot, 33-16. Michael Scullion made 28 saves for the Vikings.
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