Souderton rallied for a 6-5 win over North Penn in SHSHL action Thursday. Photos courtesy of Keith Clemens Photography. Check back for a gallery.
By Ben Reese
HATFIELD -- Short-handed goals are not rare in high school ice hockey.
You can see them in just about every game.
But four in one game -- three by one team -- including two in the final two minutes of the game. Now that's rare.
Souderton used those two in the third period and one in the first period to boost itself to a dramatic 6-5 come-from-behind win over North Penn Thursday night at Hatfield Ice Arena. The victory solidified the Indians' hold on second place in the Continental Conference at 4-1-1.
With North Penn holding a 5-4 lead on goals by Joshua Kaufhold and Joe Hawks in the third period, things looked bleak for Souderton. The clock was ticking down toward the two-minute mark and the Indians had two players in the penalty box.
Souderton had cleared the puck out of its end and North Penn goalie Caleb Floyd had come out to direct the puck to one of his defensemen. However, Josh Reeves snuck in between the defenders, snagged the puck and put it into the net with 14:07 gone in the final stanza to tie the game.
With less than 30 seconds remaining in the game, the Indians got the game-winner. On a pretty play, Jordan Engelhart set up Tyler Johnson for the winning goal, still in a short-handed situation.
"Definitely a bizarre finish," said Johnson. "I was not expecting that.
"I'm not trying to be a selfish player and take it away from Jordan. He made a great play there. He was able to beat off two defenders and feed it over to me. I just had to put it on the net."
Souderton coach Matt Montagna will take the win but he wasn't happy about it.
"I think we got pretty lucky to come back the way we did because we were undisciplined," he said. "I think we've got to play better overall but I'll take the two points."
Montagna probably should get an assist on the first short-handed goal in the third period. He made an adjustment that allowed Reeves to get into the flow of the play.
"I actually told my forwards to stay back and let Reeves do what he's doing because he's probably the fastest guy in the league or one of them,” Montagna said. “He just flies around. He's aggressive and that helped there."
North Penn was a bit short-handed itself. The Knights were missing one defenseman who was out sick when the game started. And then they lost two more defensemen to injuries during the game.
"We were kind of short-staffed on defense," said North Penn coach Kevin Vaitis. "They were tired and winded.
"You're up 5-4; you've got a five-on-three power play. Unfortunate bounces, the puck ends up in the back of our net - tie game. Then they get another one. Giving up three short-handed goals stings."
Before the dramatics of the third period, the game was anything but dull. North Penn jumped out to a 2-0 lead with 6:57 gone in the opening period, thanks to goals by Hawks and Andrew Galetta.
Souderton’s Gabe Evans came back and scored a short-handed goal at the 9:36 mark. The Indians also appeared to score again just over a minute later, but the goal was waved off by the officials for a crease violation.
Things started going Souderton's way as the second period opened. With nly 1:11 gone, Evans tied the game on the power play, one of his three goals, and Tyler Apple put the Indians on top 3-2 at 2:24.
During the early play in the period, a jumble in the North Penn goalmouth involved Knight goalie Kate Winstanley, who was playing a sterling game. In that mess, she was run over and injured, causing her to leave the game with 4:54 gone in the second period. She was replaced by Floyd.
North Penn got one of those goals back as Nathan Oh scored on another short-handed opportunity. However, Evans gave Souderton the lead back (4-3) on the power play.
Then came the third period and nothing seemed right again. Penalties almost killed the Indians. They had six penalties called on them in the third period alone.
"Totally undisciplined," said Montagna. "We'll deal with that next Monday.
"I wasn't happy with that. We shouldn't have to score two short-handed goals to finish a game."
Johnson echoed his coach's concern.
"It's not exactly how I wanted the game to go," he said. "I really wanted it to be cleaner than that.
"It was really chippy, chippier than I expected. But we battled through it and we won."
Vaitis found a positive in the loss.
"Tonight's game was a learning experience for them," the Knights’ coach said. "You win games 9-2, you don't learn a lot from that.
"You have a game here where you're down 4-3 going into the third period. You come back to dominate the third period and go up 5-4 and give up two goals late - that's something we're going to learn from."
The two North Penn defensemen who were injured, Mason Mette and Tommy Boyle, along with Winstanley were all diagnosed with upper body injuries.
Souderton 6, North Penn 5
Souderton 1 3 1 – 6
North Penn 2 1 2 – 5
First period: 1, Joe Hawks NP (Jared Albano) 2:19; 2, Andrew Galetta NP (George Boyle) 6:57 PP; 3, Gabe Evans S (Joshua Reeves, Thomas Tierney) 9:36 SH.
Second period: 4, Evans S (Tierney, Dawson Anders) 1:11 PP; 5, Tyler Apple S (Josh Killough) 2:24; 6, Nathan Oh NP (Tyler Greenstein, Albano) 8:42 SH; 7, Evans S (Miles Minnick, Jordan Engelhart) 10:00 PP.
Third period: 8, Joshua Kaufhold NP (Greenstein) 5:52; 9, Hawks NP (Max Levenberg) 8:15 PP; 10, Reeves S (unassisted) 14:07 SH; 11, Tyler Johnson S (Engelhart) 15:31 SH.
Shots: S 30, NP 35. Saves: Dawson Anders (S) 30; Kate Winstalney (NP) 13, Caleb Floyd (NP) 11.
ARCHBISHOP WOOD 11, HATBORO-HORSHAM 1
Patrick Sheehan scored two goals and assisted on four others to lead the Vikings with a six-point night. Joseph Hill (two goals, two assists) and Timothy Cordero (one goal, three assists) both had four-point games.
The Vikings seized early control of the game. Brendan Cullura scored 27 seconds into the contest, and by the time the period had ended, Cullura had the hat trick and Wood led 4-0. Hill added a single goal in the period.
Back-to-back goals by Hill to open the second period were followed by a Sheehan goal that put the Vikings on top 7-0 before the Hatters got on the scoreboard when Nathan Reilly found the net. A power play goal by Cordero closed out the period with Wood on top 8-1.
Wood held a 40-8 advantage in shots on goal.
Archbishop Wood 4-4-3 11
Hatboro-Horsham 0-1-0 1
First Period
AW: Brendan Cullura
AW: Joseph Hill (Patrick Sheehan, Timothy Cordero)
AW: Brendan Cullura (Evan Capinas)
AW: Brendan Cullura
Second Period
AW: Thomas Hill (Patrick Sheehan, Timothy Cordero)
AW: Joseph Hill (Declan Cole)
AW: Patrick Sheehan (Michael Carrelli)
HH: Nathan Reilly
AW: Timothy Cordero (power play) (Patrick Sheehan)
Third Period
AW: Patrick Sheehan (Timothy Cordero)
AW: Declan Cole (Joseph Hill)
AW: James Casper (Joseph Hill, Patrick Sheehan)
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