PW notched its third win of the season, defeating Quakertown 4-1. Ben Reese recaps the action.
By Ben Reese
HATFIELD — There are two ways an ice hockey game can go. It can either be a smooth ice-skating exhibition or it can be a rough-and-tumble mishmash.
When Plymouth Whitemarsh hosted Quakertown on Wednesday night at Hatfield Ice, it was much more of the latter and very little of the former. The Colonials got the win, their third of the season, 4-1 in a game that was marred by penalties.
There were 56 shots taken on goal, and it seemed like almost as many penalties.
“It was not the prettiest hockey game ever,” said PW coach Josh Aiello. “There were a lot of stops and starts in the flow of the game with power play and penalty kill.
“I thought we cycled the puck well. I thought we played solid defensively. It was a hard game to get into the flow of things.”
Colonial captain Aidan Keogh, who collected three points on the night (all assists), had a very “hockey player” attitude toward the choppiness of the game.
“You’ve just got to fight through that,” he said. “Not everything is always going to go as planned.
“There’s always going to be unexpected stuff. You’ve just got to work through it and keep going.”
Quakertown coach Keith Krem felt that his team played a good game, despite spending a lot of time in the penalty box.
“It wasn’t the prettiest hockey game, but we were in the hockey game,” he said. “We were spending a lot of time in our zone.
“We’ve got to spend a little less time in the box. Retaliation penalties are what killed us tonight.”
The Colonials opened up the scoring in the first period. Dylan Novitski pushed one past Quakertown goalie Matt Krem with 5:53 gone off assists from Keogh and Matt Flynn.
Less than five minutes later, the Panthers tied the game on the power play. Jack Diliberto took a pass from William Shaw and beat PW goaltender Kolton Galie to knot the score at 1-1.
That score didn’t last too long into the second period. With only 1:24 elapsed, Davie Brannigan netted what proved to be the game-winner with assists from Danny Smith and Isaac Mishkin.
Nearly 10 minutes after that, the Colonials had their third goal when Luke Weikel scored, assisted by Keogh and Flynn.
The final tally of the game came in the third period. With slightly less than 10 minutes left in the third, Weikel notched his second goal on the power play with Keogh getting his third assist.
Plymouth Whitemarsh fired 35 shots on Krem in the Quakertown net and the Panthers took 15.
Matt Krem kept his team in the game, stopping 31 of the shots. He was peppered from close in front of the net by the Colonials.
“I was glad we were able to get net front presence,” said Aiello. “If you want to score goals, you have to go to the net.
“Their goalie played really well. He was strong and he was able to track the puck really well.”
Keith Krem was obviously proud of his goalie, his son.
“He’s been pretty consistent for the last year or so,” the coach said. “He’s a sophomore this year. We had two senior goaltenders last year, so he didn’t play his freshman year. He can be pretty consistent. He’ll make saves for us.”
Both teams felt that this early conference game was an important one but for different reasons.
“Right now we are trying to build a strong foundation that will help us sustain success throughout the season,” said Aiello. “We’re off to a good start, but right now that’s all it is - a good start.”
“It’s a long season and we’re four games in,” said Keith Krem. “I look at a game like that and I think we’re just trying to get a measuring stick.
“We have a ton of young guys. There are some losing scores but we’re not getting killed. We’re competitive.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh 4, Quakertown 1
First period: 1, Dylan Novitski PW (Aidan Keogh, Matt Flynn) 5:53; 2, Jack Diliberto (William Shaw) 9:13 PP.
Second period: 3, David Brannigan PW (Danny Smith, Isaac Mishkin) 1:24; 4, Luke Weikel PW (Keogh, Flynn).
Third period: 5, Weikel PW (Keogh) 7:39 PP.
Shots: Q — 21, PW — 35. Saves: Matt Krem (Q) 31, Kolton Galie (PW) 14, Christopher Maslij (PW) 6.
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